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CQL’s 37 years mark important progress with Quality Measures 2005®

For nearly four decades, The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) has worked to continually “raise the bar” by defining quality for the individuals, organizations, and systems that provide services and supports to people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness. Fortunately, most of the deplorable conditions in the disabilities field during the 1960s that sparked the formation of CQL are no longer an issue today.

Litigation, legislation, and advocacy have produced significant reforms in the education, employment, health, and residential service systems. However, new challenges have arisen. Not everyone is afforded full respect, dignity, and legal and human rights. Expectations for and definitions of quality for people living “in the community” still await adequate definition.

CQL continues to address today’s realities and problems with methods, tools, and definitions of quality. We also assess and delineate the challenge to do even more with our visions, values, and conceptual frameworks. It is with these two goals in mind that we designed our new Quality Measures 2005 ^®. Our priority since mid-2003, these measures form the basis for our work in the years ahead. A comprehensive set of quality measures, they incorporate many of our enduring principles: improving quality of life, building social capital, and increasing community inclusion.

Our goal is to share Quality Measures 2005 ^® with self-advocates, families, organizations, state systems, and public and private organizations throughout the world. Working together, we can develop communities with dignity, opportunity, and inclusion for all people.

Organizations can use Quality Measures 2005 ^® and the related applications to develop an integrated quality management system. CQL has developed Seven Quality Strategies that offer organizations alternatives for initiating an integrated quality management system.

In the words of Linda M. Timmons, Senior Vice President of Program Services, Mosaic, “As a provider and advocate working in partnership with people with disabilities, Mosaic strives to exceed regulatory requirements and define quality in response to each person’s hopes and dreams. Together with CQL, we are able to more clearly define our mission to provide services that are responsive, individualized and in line with our organizational values.”

We invite you to contact us today to learn more about our Quality Measures 2005 ^® and start your journey to excellence with CQL.