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A community mental health accountability scale
Author(s) -
Rust Margaret A.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(197910)7:4<328::aid-jcop2290070409>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - accountability , mental health , scale (ratio) , agency (philosophy) , psychology , variance (accounting) , public relations , applied psychology , medical education , medicine , business , political science , psychiatry , sociology , accounting , geography , social science , cartography , law
An Accountability Questionnaire was administered to adminstrators, service providers, and board members of 50 community mental health centers. The results, using cluster analysis techniques, yielded an Accountability Scale of 22 items. Four clusters with satisfactory discriminative validity were extracted: (a) Importance of Program Evaluation; (b) Satisfaction with State Monitoring Procedures; (c) Traditional Clinical versus Community Psychology Concerns; (d) Agency Preservation versus External Accountability. Analyses of variance indicated that board members, staff, and administrators differed significantly in their scores on each cluster. The Accountability Scale is a potential tool for community mental health agencies in assessing intraorganizational attitudes concerning accountability and has implications for administrative planning and evaluation.