Mental health program monitoring: towards simplifying a complex task.

Finding measures that can assess areas of expected program impact, provide valid results, and be easily integrated into routine program practices is a significant challenge. This paper is intended to assist program staff by providing an accessible inventory of measures appropriate for routine monitoring of the status and outcome of individuals using mental health outpatient and community programs. The inventory is not exhaustive, but rather includes examples of solid measures for assessing outcomes in four key domains--symptoms, functioning, quality of life, and satisfaction. These can provide a core of information, to which measurement of more in-depth issues can be added to address specific concerns.