The need to keep up with public demand has made it a necessity for government agencies to contract out governmental services to outside agencies. This research study explores if contracting out for client based services within the Los Angeles County, Department of Mental Health (DMH) is having a negative effect on administrative accountability among DMH management. There is no research on the effects contracting out client services has on DMH management. Through in-depth interviews with 15 key stakeholders, this study examines if there is any correlation between contracting out for services and a decrease in administrative accountability. Through a qualitative exploratory approach, the results of this research will shed light on the negative effects contracting out for services has on the largest county mental health department in the United States. Ultimately, management should highly prioritize the stringent monitoring of contract providers.

In an effort to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families, and communities, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) offers prevention and early intervention programs to residents. To comply with regulations established by California's Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, LACDMH must report on changes in program participants' risk and protective factors that occur as a result of program engagement. LACDMH asked the RAND Corporation for assistance in developing tools to help generate such measures and reports. In this document, RAND researchers describe the process they used and the products they created to assist LACDMH. The process included developing a conceptual framework to guide the selection of appropriate measures of program outcomes and their associated risk and protective factors; assessing and selecting existing measures that meet certain criteria; designing and formatting questionnaires for data collection for three target populations; and creating the Data Entry, Scoring, and Report Tool. The researchers also review the strengths and limitations of their approach and suggest next steps.