"Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations spent two years researching and developing selection criteria for an outcomes management system that resulted in the endorsement of TOP as the preferred outcome tool back in 1996 and our enthusiasm for TOPs has only strengthened over the years. It is clear from the TOP down (pardon my pun) that TOP was designed by and for clinicians.

The Bridge of Central Massachusetts uses the TOP instrument as a major part of its quality improvement program. We selected the TOP to measure outcomes in our child, adolescent, and adult clients for four reasons:

1) The TOP is user friendly and cost-effective. Results from client or caregiver forms come back to the individual clinicians very quickly.

2) Clinicians use the TOP results with clients to identify problems, set treatment goals, recognize areas of strength, and chart progress.

3) Agency administrators use aggregate data provided by BHL to look at client profiles both within and across programs. Trends lead to quality improvement initiatives, staff training priorities, and recognition of positive outcomes.

4) The TOP instrument is the only one in the country that permits benchmarking comparisons across agencies and states. BHL has one of the great data sets in the entire United States. The Bridge is pleased to be able to compare our services in a constructive way to other services throughout the country."

Barent Walsh, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Bridge of Central Massachusetts
and
Chair, Outcomes Committee
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Providers of Massachusetts

"Behavioral Health Laboratories provides outstanding customer service to the Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health Agency. BHL staff are very accessible, supportive and receptive to CWCMH needs. With BHL assistance, CWCMH has implemented a system for measuring outcomes that is clinically sound and sensible.

CWCMH implementation of BHL's TOP instrument as its outcome measurement tool has been a significant aid to the management of its treatment services. TOP individual client reports are not only timely but provide a clear understanding of what the client is reporting. Clinical staff report that the TOP is a valuable tool, aiding them with assessment and treatment planning in the care of clients. Additionally clinical staff indicate that the TOP assist them in the therapeutic setting to help engage clients in their treatment process and to show them changes in behavior and functioning that is occurring as a result of treatment. TOP outcomes have been of significant aid to CWCMH administration in understanding how its various treatment services are performing and meeting JCAHO ORYX requirements. CWCMH uses TOP outcome measures for program improvement and development. In addition the organization has successfully used TOP outcome measurements in its pursuit of grants to support clinical services."

Jack A. Maris,
Vice President
Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health
Yakima, Washington
National Council of Community Behavioral Healthcare
Winner Award of Excellence- Community Provider of the Year 2003

"We have been using BHL to help us implement the TOP for our outcome measurement project for over two years. Collecting outcome data at regularly scheduled intervals has become a routine part of the way we do business. The TOP instrument has helped us to integrate outcome measurement into both the treatment planning we do with our clients and in the development of CQI projects at the Counseling Center.

Everyone involved in the outcome measurement project from the support staff who administer the initial and follow-up TOP to the clinical staff who incorporate outcome results into practice, to the clients who fill out the forms, all find the TOP an easy measure to implement, interpret and understand.

Instead of just providing a set of tools, BHL offers a complete system that provides administrators at the Counseling Center with the information we need to meet the requirements of accrediting bodies like the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services. We plan on using the TOP to meet the individual and aggregate outcome data reporting requirements of managed care organizations like the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership. BHL provides us with critical feedback at the client level and the aggregate level, and uses sophisticated risk-adjustment to benchmark us with other agencies across the state and country."