Data and decisions: Can mental health management be knowledge-based?

Three major factors suggest a healthy future for data-based decision making within mental health authorities:(1) the improved knowledge base related to the treatment and management of serious mental illness, (2) advances in data-processing technology and (3) conceptual advances in management information system design, most notably the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Mental Health Statistics Improvement Package. This paper brifly outlines these three factors and goes on to examine information needed by state mental health authorities (SMHAs) to enhance decision making. The clientlevel data necessary for data-based policy decisions, while still scarce, are increasingly available and are increasingly finding homes within SMHA management information systems. As SMHAs improve their information systems to accommodate such data, they face substantial implementation challenges and substantial payoffs in terms of increased knowledge for decision making. This report is an expansion of a talk given by the authors at a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health on Oct. 30, 1989, for recipients of grants to enhance the information-processing capabilities of state mental health authorities.