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A comparison of consumer-administered and staff-administered client statisfaction surveys in mental health

University of British Columbia

Consumer participation has become an increasingly important concept within the field,of mental health. A study by Polowczyk et al. (1993) suggests that involving consumers as surveyors in satisfaction studies may help improve research validity by minimizing socially desirable or acquiescent response sets. The purpose of this study was twofold: to determine the effects of consumer participation in the process of administering client satisfaction questionnaires to mental health consumers and to examine the experiences of five mental health consumers who were involved as researchers in the project. The consumer-researchers participated in the development of the survey instrument, the collection and analysis of the data, and the dissemination of the research results. A comparison was made between the results of 25 questionnaires administered by consumer-surveyors and 32 questionnaires administered by staff-surveyors. Fifty-seven adult clients with serious and persistent psychiatric disabilities attending a community mental health team completed the questionnaire. Contrary to the previous study, the results of the consumer-administered and staff-administered surveys did not prove to be significantly different. The findings of the comparative study suggest that consumer participation in the administration of client satisfaction evaluations may not be a key factor in determining the level of client satisfaction. However, the data gathered on the experiences of the consumer-researchers suggest several important issues to be addressed during the planning and organizing stages of participatory projects in mental health research.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-19

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3797

Social Work

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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