Objective: Satisfaction with 11 aspects of service quality and four domains of effectiveness was assessed for counseling services offered through Project Liberty after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
Methods: A total of 607 Project Liberty service recipients completed anonymous questionnaires, telephone interviews, or both. The 11 aspects of quality were counselor respect for client, willingness to listen, cultural sensitivity, speaking the same language as the client, amount of counseling time, convenience of meeting time and location, information received, whether the service would be used again, whether the service would be recommended to friends or family, and overall quality of service. The four effectiveness domains were daily responsibilities, relationships, physical health, and community involvement.
Results: At least 89 percent of service recipients rated Project Liberty as either good or excellent across 11 service quality dimensions and four effectiveness domains. The counselor's respect for clients and his or her cultural sensitivity were rated particularly favorably.
Conclusions: These ratings suggest that, from the viewpoint of these recipients of counseling services, Project Liberty counselors were largely successful in providing accessible, acceptable, and useful services after the World Trade Center disaster. Such evaluations can be conducted in a cost-effective manner and integrated with evidence-based practice to ultimately ensure that recipients of counseling receive the most efficient and effective interventions.