Mental health workers' ratings of the importance of the goals of a cooperative CMHC-state hospital screening-aftercare program

Ratings of the importance of the goals of a pilot community mental health center (CMHC)-state psychiatric hospital cooperative program aimed at providing screening and aftercare were obtained from 214 mental health professionals. Respondents were employed at state hospitals, at CMHCs that were participating in the program, and at CMHCs that were not participating in the pilot cooperative program. Ratings of importance were found to differ across goals, between mental health workers of state hospitals and CMHCs, between participating and nonparticipating CMHCs, between professions, and as a function of distance between CMHCs and state hospitals. Implications of the findings for the evaluation of the success of a cooperative screening-aftercare pilot program are discussed.