Quality assurance for community mental health centers: impact of P.L. 94-63.

The Community Mental Health Centers Amendments of 1975 (Public Law 94-63) contained three requirements relating to quality assurance in community mental health centers: the development of national standards for the centers, the development of quality assurance programs, and the collection of data to be used in program evaluation. The authors describe the CMHC standards developed by the National Institute of Mental Health in compliance with the law. They discuss quality assurance programs in the centers in relation to the developing network of professional standards review organizations. They also describe the kinds of activities centers must conduct to meet the program evaluation requirements and some of the materials that have been developed to assist the centers.