How mental health providers see managed care

Marriage and family therapists evaluate managed mental health care: a qualitative inquiry

This study examined the experiences of 26 marriage and family therapists working in managed mental health care. A qualitative strategy was used to explore therapists' perspectives regarding practice in a managed care environment. Using an open-ended, semi-structured, mailed questionnaire four themes emerged from the data. These are the adaptations of clinical practice, issues of treatment duration/abandonment, effects of managed care on the therapeutic relationship, and issues of diagnosis. Recommendations are drawn from the findings and discussed.

Managed care and academic psychiatry

Managed care, with its emphasis on cost effectiveness, case review, and treatment guidelines, has become a major influence on the delivery of mental health care and on the field of psychiatry. Given the importance of academic psychiatry in producing future psychiatrists and shaping their attitudes toward managed care, two separate surveys of chairs of 125 medical school departments of psychiatry were conducted. The surveys, completed in 1989-90 and 1991-92, indicate a trend toward accepting the usefulness and importance of managed care.