Implications of advances in indirect needs-assessment models for mental health planning and administration

Abstract

We were members of the original Colorado group that, beginning in 1981, conceived and designed the research that is reported in this issue. Then, as now, we were applied researchers working within the public mental health system who were concerned with systematizing and scientifically validating planning and resource allocation procedures. Working with our colleagues, we designed the Colorado research to be responsive to the concerns of planners and evaluators and to anticipate emerging trends in state mental health administration. In reacting to the work now completed, we will report, admittedly from our unique perspectives, the degree to which it continues to be responsive to issues confronted by the public mental health system in the 1990s and attempt to identify emerging questions in mental health planning and administration that may be the topics of future mental health services