The Utility of Assessment for Different Purposes

Abstract

Although formal assessment is a hallmark of scientific research, it is equally important to rational decision-making in management and clinical activities. The operation of mental health services systems for the chronically mentally ill requires a multitude of decisions at administrative and clinical levels, and each decision involves a choice among alternative courses of action. A facility director deciding, for example, on the level of funding for a treatment program chooses among at least three alternatives: increase funding, decrease funding, or maintain the status quo. Likewise, an individual clinician’s decision to administer a neuroleptic drug to a particular patient involves a choice among drugs, dosage levels, and methods of administration. Even the tacit decision to continue activities “as usual” involves a choice not to change to alternative courses of action. All rational decision-making requires that choices among courses of action be based upon the probable gains and losses each alternative offers. The operation of mental health services for the chronically mentally ill involves choices that assume some level of assessment because they imply comparisons and predictions. Thus, formal assessment is as important to good services as it is to good research.