Sitting in my hotel room in Brisbane, Australia. It’s beautiful here: white, sandy beaches and temperatures hovering around 80 degrees. Can’t say that I’ll be enjoying the sunny weather much. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking to a group of 135+ practitioners about “Supershrinks.” I leave for home on Saturday. While it’s cold and overcast in Chicago, I’m really looking forward to seeing my family after nearly two weeks on the road.
I spent the morning talking to practitioners in New Zealand via satellite for a conference sponsored by Te Pou. It was a completely new and exciting experience for me, seated in an empty television studio and talking to a camera. Anyway, organizers of the conference are determined to avoid mistakes made in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere with the adoption of “evidence-based practice.” As a result, they organized the event around the therapeutic alliance–the most neglected, yet evidence-based concept in the treatment literature! More later, including a link to the hour-long presentation.
On Friday and Saturday of this last week, I was in the classic Victorian city of Melbourne, Australia doing two days worth of training at the request of WorkSafe and the Traffic Accident Commission. The mission of WorkSafe is, “Working with the community to deliver outstanding workplace safety, together with quality care and insurance protection to workers and employers.” 100+ clinicians dedicated to helping Australians recover from work and traffic-related injuries were present for the first day of training which focused on using formal client feedback to improve retention and outcome of psychological services. On day 2, a smaller group met for an intensive day of training and consultation. Thanks go to the sponsors and attendees for an exciting two days. Learn more about how outcomes are being used to inform service delivery by watching the video below with Daniel Claire and Claire Amies from the Health Services Group.
4 responses to “Outcomes in Oz II”
Hi Scott,
I just wanted to thank you for the fantastic job you did in Melbourne for the TAC/Worksafe workshop.
Not only was it the best laughter therapy I’ve had for a long time (did you have a hidden camera in my consulting room while I was trying to complete treatment plans with my clients?), but the information has been really useful.
To start with I feel a lot better that I am not the only one who has trouble with these things (and who sees CBT as the bully on the block).
But you have also challenged me to find a way to get more targeted feedback from my clients and be accountable.
I’ve started using the outcome measures and am astonished to find I don’t get 40/40 from my clients!
Thank you again for your generous energy, and I hope your sore throat got better quickly.
Warm regards,
Kate Mottram
Thanks for your note Kate and for attending the training sponsored by WorkSafe and the TAC in Melbourne. It takes boldness and courage to begin seeking feedback on an ongoing basis from clients. As you’ve discovered, we don’t always get perfect marks. At the same time, we never really did! Now, we just know and are able to do something about it. Hope our trails cross again in the future.
G’day Scott
I just wanted to post a quick thank you by way of a testimonial.
Around this time last year, I had just seen you do your 2 day “supershrinks” workshop in brisbane and was debating whether or not to invest the time and energy into doing routine evaluation on a session by session basis, as opposed to the pre / post evaluations id gotten used to.
After a lengthy email exchange with you, i finally decided to implement both a routine measure of outcome prior to each session and a feedback form at the end of each session for every new presentation in 2009. The benefits were obvious within a couple of sessions; it was so much easier to have a metric of change rather than the usual vague verbal exchange.
However, the real benefits didn’t really kick in until i had seen around 20 clients and began to collate their data in an excel spreadsheet. By having a metric that allowed me to compare apples with apples i was finally able to clearly get a sense of what my strengths and weaknesses were as a therapist. Firstly, it was a relief to find out that i was actually effective. Secondly, it was interesting to note some real areas of weakness (one of which in an area that i have reputation for being quite good with).
So this year has been one of the steepest learning curves for me since my clinical training in 1999. By identifying weaknesses, i have been able to chose readings, PD activities and techniques specifically aimed at addressing these weaknesses. While thats a never ending process, it has been one of the more rewarding years i have had in a long time to just totally look at my practice anew.
So once again, a big thank you for pulling together the excellence literature so effectively, and for your generous time after your workshop
All the best,
Hi Scott
I work for the Transport Accident Commission & attended your presentation “What works in Therapy” on 20 November 2009.
I’m not a therapist myself but am involved in the management of requests for funding of psychotherapy treatment programs.
I found your workshop extremely well researched & very engagingly presented. If more treating psychologists who provide therapy to our clients adopted your approaches I’m sure we’d see better patient outcomes in many instances.
I was also impressed with the pro-bono work you do in your practice in Chicago – keep up the good work !
Thanks again for a very informative & entertaining presentation.