CQI is a mental health consumer-led, non-profit organization with section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. CQI's executive director and key personnel are people with psychiatric conditions, as are a majority of its board members.

CQI provides a forum for the consumer voice through confidential interviews, focus groups and aggregate reporting. Our data-driven reports are thoughtful, in readable formats, and disseminated in a manner to directly impact behavioral health practice and policy. With the ongoing development of recovery-oriented models of care, we continue to work with community partners and other key stakeholders to strengthen and expand this forum.

CQI also consults with organizations locally and nationally on achieving significant involvement of consumers in the "change" process to promote mental health systems transformation and quality improvement.

CQI's approach to research, evaluation and systems change is based primarily on two analytical frameworks. Community-Based Participatory Action Research  is a collaborative process that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. As part of neo-institutional theory, an organization that brings individuals who are both not part of the organization and willing to challenge its customs into key decision-making processes is likely to effectuate deep organizational learning and change.

CQI's mission and objectives are directly responsive to the 2003 President's New Freedom Commission report's call for a "consumer-driven" mental health system of care, with a specific reference to consumer led research and evaluation.