Getting to Systems that Promote Self-Determination

This is a working paper that was prepared for The National Self-Determination and Psychiatric Disability Invitational Conference: We Make the Road by Traveling on it, in Chicago-O’Hare, Illinois. The paper discusses self-determination in the field of mental health, exploring the construct of self-determination and the use of research and evaluation to develop systems which promote self-determination. The author presents challenges for quantitative research and evaluation posed by self-determination for persons with mental disorders: operationally defining and measuring self-determination, identifying services and practices that are effective in bringing about self-determination, and monitoring self-determination in report card oriented measures of quality assurance and consumer satisfaction.

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