Measurement of parents satisfaction with their child's treatment in (semi) residential adolescent mental health care

When their children are admitted to (semi-) residential care parents have to transfer their parental role to professional health care workers. Existing Dutch instruments to measure the satisfaction of parents with the treatment of their child in mental health care, do not acknowledge this very important aspect. Therefore the Tevredenheidlijst Ouders Residentiele Jeugdhulpverlening (TOR-J) was developed to measure parent satisfaction focusing on three aspects of the residential treatment: 'Transference of parental care', 'Treatment result' and 'Communication with the parents'. The instrument was tested in a residential (184 parents) and a semi residential (49 parents) setting. A 3-factor solution was found with 6 items loading on 'Transference of parental care', 4 items on 'Treatment result'. The third factor contained 6 items of which 2 items were not initially written for the 'Communication with the parents' subscale. This result broadened the domain of the scale, therefore it was relabeled 'Parent guidance'. Significant correlations were found between the TOR-J scale 'Treatment results' and the results of the client satisfaction scale that was administered to the adolescent patients.