Effective privatization of a community mental health agency: Assessing and developing an agency's readiness to change.
Item
-
Title
-
Effective privatization of a community mental health agency: Assessing and developing an agency's readiness to change.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3283141
-
identifier
-
3283141
-
Creator
-
Schwartz, Edythe S.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Irwin Epstein
-
Date
-
2007
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Social Work | Sociology, Organizational
-
Abstract
-
On July 1, 1997, a county located outside of New York City, became the first in the state to privatize mental health services by creating County Family Services (CFS), a voluntary not-for-profit agency. CFS is additionally unique in that while the social welfare literature emphasizes the negative effects privatization has on staff, clients and services, this did not appear to be CFS' experience. Impressionistically, the agency appeared to flourish after privatization. However, no systematic evaluation had been done to document these positive outcomes.;The purpose of this study is to describe and demonstrate the effects of privatization on CFS and to see if this change did, in fact, result in more efficient and effective service provision. By systematically gathering and analyzing available agency data before, during and after privatization we could better evaluate the effects of privatization on CFS and document whether service provision improved without compromising quality of care. Measures of effectiveness and efficiency used, included diversification of revenues, percent of revenue to gross costs, gross and net unit of service costs, numbers of clients seen and number of units of service delivered. To see whether improvements came at the expense of quality of care, diagnostic profiles, number and type of social work interventions received, client outcomes and client and clinician perceptions of treatment prior to and after privatization were measured.;One possible explanation for these positive outcomes involved the administrative use of an organizational analogue of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (PR), a clinical philosophy and practice developed by William Anthony to help individuals cope with change. In this context, the PR analogue was used to assess CFS' readiness to change and to develop activities that would help the agency increase its readiness in the areas that required strengthening.;By exploring the process and outcomes of CFS' privatization, this study might help other social work administrators develop organizational practice models that encourage innovation, maximize resources and expand service possibilities.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
D.S.W.
