Adolescents' perceptions of outpatient mental health services

Thirty-three adolescents from three mental health service settings were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the purpose, goals, expectations, frustrations and benefits of mental health experiences. They provided satisfaction ratings and importance rankings of seven domains of satisfaction: (a) Convenient/Accessible, (b) Meeting Needs, (c) Staff Competence, (d) Personal Relationship with Staff, (e) Effectiveness of Treatment, (f) Comfort/Appropriateness of Center, and (g) Costs and Paperwork. In addition, participants completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8). Results indicated that, in general, the adolescents were very satisfied with the services they received. Gender, race/ethnicity and treatment site were not related to satisfaction scores, nor was the adolescent's perceived choice in seeking services. Some significant gender differences were found both in terms of the rankings of satisfaction domains, as well as in the adolescents' perceptions of their reasons for initiating counseling and the perceived goals and benefits of counseling. Additional differences in perceptions of services were found for treatment site and race/ethnicity. In general, adolescents were able to generate informative, sophisticated responses to questions regarding their perceptions of mental health services, and demonstrated that they are capable of evaluating services they receive.