-
Goodbye Freud, Hello Common Factors
Gary Greenberg certainly has a way with words. In his most recent article, The War on Unhappiness, published in the August issue of Harper’s magazine, Greenberg focuses on the "helping profession"–its colorful characters, constantly shifting theoretical landscape, and claims and counterclaims regarding "best practice." He also gives prominence to the most robust and replicated finding in psychotherapy outcome research: the "dodo bird verdict." Simply… — read more
-
The Effects of Feedback on Medication Compliance and Outcome: Follow Up on The University of Pittsburgh Study
Late last year, I blogged about a study being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh by Dr. Jan Pringle, the director of the Program Evalutation Research Unit in the School of Pharmacology and her colleague, Dr. Michael Melczak. You’ll recall, there were two conditions in the study. In the first, pharmacists–the practitioner most likely to interact… — read more
-
Connecting, Learning, and Sharing: The ICCE at One Year
September 7, 2010 Chicago, Illinois USA I can’t believe it. Summer is over. Kids are back in school. And the International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE) is celebrating its one year anniversary! Time passes so quickly. On August 24th, 2009, I blogged about the creation of a web-based community of clinicians using the latest Web2.0 technology where… — read more
-
Ohio Update: Use of CDOI improves outcome, retention, and decreases "board-level" complaints
A few days ago, I received an email from Shirley Galdys, the Associate Director of the Crawford-Marion Alcohol and Drug/Mental Health Services Board in Marion, Ohio. Back in January, I blogged about the steps the group had taken to deal with the cutbacks, shortfalls, and all around tough economic circumstances facing agencies in Ohio. At… — read more
-
Error-centric Practice: How Getting it Wrong can Help you Get it Right
It’s an idea that makes intuitive sense but is simultanesouly unappealing to most people. I, for one, don’t like it. What’s more, it flies in the face of the "self-esteem" orientation that has dominated much of educational theory and practice over the last several decades. And yet, research summarized in a recent issue of Scientific American… — read more
-
The Impact of Mentors
Brendan Madden Scott D. Miller Jeffrey K. Zeig A little over month ago, I blogged about how the outcome and session rating scales were originally conceived of and developed. A few days prior to that, I wrote about where the whole idea of using measures to solicit feedback had started. In both instances, my teachers and supervisors played a… — read more
-
So you want to be a better therapist? Take a hike!
How best to improve your performance as a clinician? Take the continuing education mutliple-choice quiz: a. Attend a two-day training; b. Have an hour of supervision from a recognized expert in a particular treatment approach; c. Read a professional book, article, or research study; d. Take a walk or nap. If you chose a, b,… — read more
-
Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT): A Worldwide Trend in Behavioral Health
In my prior blogpost, I reviewed exciting developments taking place throughout Canada regarding "feedback-informed treatment" (FIT). For those following me on Twitter–and if you’re not, please do so by clicking on the link–you already know that last week I was in Tunbridge, England for a two day training sponsored by the Kent-Medway National Healthcare Trust on "Supershrinks: Learning from the Fields… — read more
-
Implementing Consumer-Driven, Outcome-Informed (CDOI) Behavioral Health Services: The ICCE and 2010 Training of Trainers Event
This week I’m in Calgary, Canada. Last week, I was in Charleston, South Carolina. Next week, I’ll be in Marion, Ohio and Bay city, Michigan. In each instance, I’m working with the management and staff of public behavioral health agencies that are busy implementing consumer-driven, outcome-informed clinical work. Some of the groups are just beginning… — read more
-
Feedback, Friends, and Outcome in Behavioral Health
My first year in college, my declared major was accounting. What can I say? My family didn’t have much money and my mother–who chose my major for me–thought that the next best thing to wealth was being close to money. Much to her disappointment I switched from accounting to psychology in my softmore year. That’s when I first met Dr. Michael Lambert.… — read more
-
ICCE Membership Hits 1000!
Just yesterday, the membership of the International Center for Clinical Excellence burst through the 1000 mark, making it the largest community of behavioral health professionals dedicated to excellence and consumer-driven, outcome-informed clinical practice (CDOI). And there’s more news…click on the video below. — read more
-
Problems in Evidence-Based Land: Questioning the Wisdom of "Preferred Treatments"
This last week, Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor for the U.K. Independent published an article entitled, “The big question: Does cognitive therapy work? And should the NHS (National Health Service) provide more of it?” Usually such questions are limited to professional journals and trade magazines. Instead, it ran in the “Life and Style” section of one of Britain’s… — read more
-
Is Professional Training a Waste of Time?
Every year, thousands of students graduate from professional programs with degrees enabling them to work in the field of behavioral health. Many more who have already graduated and are working as a social worker, psychologist, counselor, or marriage and family therapist attend—often by legal mandate—continuing education events. The costs of such training in terms of time and… — read more
-
Excellence on a Shoestring: The “Home for Good” Program
Today I’m teaching in Christchurch, New Zealand. For the last two days, I’ve been in Nelson, a picturesque coastal town opposite Abel Tasman, working with the local DHB (District Health Board). If you’ve never visited, make a point of adding the country to your list of top travel destinations. The landscape and the people are second to none. (In… — read more
-
Leading for a Change: The Training of Trainer’s (TOT) Chicago
I’m writing tonight from my hotel room at the River Rock Inn in Rockland, Ontario, Canada. For those of you who are not familiar with the area, it is a biligual (French & English) community of around 9,000 located about 25 km west of Ottawa. Today through Thursday, I’m working with the staff, supervisors, and agency administrators of… — read more
-
Outcomes in the Artic: An Interview with Norwegian Practitioner Konrad Kummernes
Dateline: Mosjoen, Norway The last stop on my training tour around northern Norway was Mosjoen. The large group of psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, case managers, and physicians laughed uproariously when I talked about the bumpy, "white-knuckler" ride aboard the small twin-engine airplane that delivered me to the snowy, mountain-rimmed town. They were all to familiar with the… — read more
-
Why ongoing, formal feedback is critical for improving outcomes in healthcare
Not long ago, I had a rather lengthy email exchange with a well-known, high profile psychotherapist in the United States. Feedback was the topic. We both agreed that feedback was central to successful psychotherapy. We differed, however, in terms of method. I argued for the use of simple, standardized measures of progress and alliance (e.g., ORS and SRS). In support… — read more
-
Holidays and Suicide: Tis’ the Season NOT!
The notion that suicides increase during the holiday season is as traditional as "Santa Claus"–and, according to statistics dating back at least a decade, just as illusory. In fact, research actually shows suicide rates to be the lowest in December! According to Dan Romer, a researcher at the Annenberb Public Policy Center at the University… — read more
-
The Crown Jewel of Research on CDOI: Professor Jan Blomqvist receives 2.9 million crown grant for RCT on feedback in Sweden
If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you know that last week I was touring and teaching in different spots around Europe. First, I presented two days in Copenhagen. Then I keynoted the British Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy Conference in Newcastle, England. Early Saturday morning, I flew from London to Stockholm. My long time friend… — read more