The data used in our study were submitted by public mental health agencies in eight states (Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia) for 1997 through 2000 during the Sixteen-State Study on Mental Health Performance Measures, (9) a multistate project federally funded by the CMHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to compare the mortality of clients served by these public mental health systems. Only these eight of the 16 states were able to submit data on the deaths of their clients. Seven states included data on deaths of both their outpatient clients and their hospitalized inpatient clients. Virginia included data only on the deaths of hospitalized inpatients. For each year that data were submitted, multiple standardized measures of mortality were calculated for public mental health clients and the general population of each state, including age-adjusted death rates (AADRs), standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), years of potential life lost (YPLL), and mean age at time of death. All eight states did not submit data for all years. Six states
