February 15, 2007

Mental Health, United States, 2004

This report, by Ronald W. Manderscheid, Ph.D., Joyce T. Berry, Ph.D., J.D., and Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, introduce the quality improvement model and its application to the mental health field. The authors describe the Crossing the Quality Chasm Model, a framework developed by the institute of Medicine, as a tool to reform health care and improve its quality. Power introduces the goals of the President's new freedom Commission on Mental Health-the guiding goals for transformation of mental health care in the United States-and links those goals to performance measures, which are critical to quality improvement efforts. The report addresses the history of the mental health consumer movement in the United States and the role it has played in quality improvement. The authors examine the role of information technology as a force that promotes transformation and that can be applied effectively to improve the quality of care.