Tracking Behavioral Progress Within a Children's Mental Health System: The Vermont Community Adjustment Tracking System

In recent years, children's mental health agencies have been called on to demonstrate increased accountability for the services they provide. At the same time, the advent of managed care approaches to service provision for children and their families has placed increased emphasis on the use of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of emotional and behavioral disorders 1998-04, Vol.6 (1), p.19-32
Main Authors: Bruns, Eric J., Burchard, John D., Froelich, Peter, Yoe, James T., Tighe, Theodore
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adjustment (to Environment)
Adolescents
Agencies
Behavior Development
Behavior Disorders
Behavior Modification
Behavior Patterns
Behavior Rating Scales
Behaviour
Check Lists
Children
Data Collection
Emotional Disturbances
Evaluation
Evaluation Methods
Measurement Techniques
Measures (Instruments)
Mental health care
Mental Health Programs
Mental Health Services
Parent Participation
Progress
State Programs
Tracking
Vermont
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Description
Summary:In recent years, children's mental health agencies have been called on to demonstrate increased accountability for the services they provide. At the same time, the advent of managed care approaches to service provision for children and their families has placed increased emphasis on the use of outcome measures to monitor client progress as well as track system efficiency. In this article, we begin by discussing the role of behavioral adjustment as an outcome variable for children's mental health. Then, the Vermont Community Adjustment Tracking System (VT-CATS), which includes four behavioral instruments designed to provide intensive, ongoing, and interpretable behavioral assessment of a service system's most challenging children and adolescents, is described. Next, the adjustment indicator checklists that compose VT-CATS are described, including the rationale behind their development, structures, and psychometric properties. Finally, the ability of VT-CATS to address agencies' multiple evaluation demands is discussed, including examples of behavior tracking of individual clients, evaluation of the impact of an intervention, and the use of behavioral data to guide service system policy.
ISSN:1063-4266
1538-4799
DOI:10.1177/106342669800600102