The 10-year review of scales assessing functional impairment by Winters in this issue provides an informative, well-organized, and exhaustive review of the literature. The construct of functional impairment is differentiated from the severity of disorder. Scales in each category are reviewed in a uniform manner covering the following headings: general description, scales and scoring, normative data, psychometric properties, applications, and advantages and disadvantages. The focus on functional impairment is attributed to three sources: (1) DSM-IV system, which requires distress or impairment, not just signs and symptoms but a measure of "caseness" (2) a need by providers, administrators, and parents to track treatment outcomes via improvement in functioning; and (3) the field of outcomes research. The author includes a section devoted to the selection of an appropriate scale based on the user's need for overall measure, domain specific, strength based or level, and types of services needed. The findings indicate that most scales are fairly new and may not have the benefit of field research or thorough psychometric testing. However, it is clear that there are some scales that are better suited to address different clinical and research purposes and that scales are being used more and more in the public sector. The author concludes with a section on future directions that poses three areas that merit future work.