Measuring quality of mental health care: a review of initiatives and programs in selected countries

Abstract

This review article presents a systematic review of grey literature describing current initiatives that assess the quality of mental health care in 12 countries, as collected by the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.There have been increased efforts in many countries to develop and implement mental health indicator schemes to measure and monitor the quality of mental health care at the national and subnational level. Most mental health indicator sets are part of larger health policy initiatives at the national and (or) provincial or state level, with indicators and domains regularly reviewed and revised. The indicator sets described in health care quality initiatives vary widely in their scope, intended use, and degree of development, and they often cut across a broad range of domains, reflecting not only a country's specific health system and how it is organized and structured but also the implementation of such schemes (that is, collection and analysis of data) and the sociopolitical realities that determine mental health priorities.