THE COMPUTERIZATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CENTERS

Attitudes of personnel toward computerized information systems used in community mental health centers affect how well clinical social workers employed in these centers will use such systems to enhance practice. This study used a questionnaire to survey community mental health personnel's attitudes toward computers in general and toward the computerization of their centers. Intensive interviews with key administrative personnel were used to gather data on implementation problems and system design. A combination of innovation, organizational, and design variables were assessed in this exploratory survey.;The survey questionnaires were administered and interviews conducted at seven centers in Illinois. Two hundred sixty-one community mental health personnel participated. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and measures of association.;The results showed that community mental health personnel hold neutral to positive attitudes toward computers and neutral to negative attitudes toward the process of computerization. Nonadministrative personnel do not feel that they personally benefit from computerization.;Innovation variables were found to be less associated with computer attitudes than organizational variables such as the decentralization and organizational climate.;Six major research questions were posed: (1) Are community mental health personnel attitudes toward computerization positive or negative? (2) Are innovation variables such as compatibility, perceived benefit, and championship associated with computer attitudes? (3) Do decentralized centers that encourage personnel participation in decision-making regarding computerization report more positive computer attitudes and experience fewer implementation problems? (4) How has computerization impacted community mental health centers as organizations and is this impact viewed as positive or negative? (5) What implementation problems do centers that have computerized encounter? and (6) How are centers approaching system design?;Administrators considered the implementation process more stressful than other personnel, but design centered problems were more frequently reported than staff resistance problems.;Each community mental health center was found to be unique in its approach to system design.