feedback informed treatment – Scott D.Miller

Implementing Feedback Informed Treatment

What do the Sydney Opera House, Boston Central Artery Tunnel, and Eurozone Typhoon Defense Project all have in common? In each case, their developers suffered from, “The Planning Fallacy” (PF). First recognized in 1979 by Nobel Prize winning psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the planning fallacy is the all too human tendency to underestimate — read more
Want to be more effective? Point North!

Sime time ago, while on a flight, I watched a program from the Discovery Channel about the North American red fox. The furry little creatures were shown hunting rodents hidden under three feet of snow. Three feet! Up in the air the foxes would hop, thrusting their noses deep into the drifts. Most of the time, — read more
Is Supervision Important to you?

How valuable is clinical supervision to you? In their massive, long-term international study of therapist development, researchers Orlinsky and Rønnestad (2005) found that “practitioners at all experience levels, theoretical orientations, professions, and nationalities report that supervised client experience is highly important for their current and career development” (p. 188). Despite the value most of us place on — read more
What’s in an Acronym? CDOI, FIT, PCOMS, ORS, SRS … all BS?

“What’s in a name?” –William Shakespeare A little over a week ago, I received an email from Anna Graham Anderson, a graduate student in psychology at Aarhus University in Denmark. “I’m writing,” she said, “in hopes of receiving some clarifications.” Without reading any further, I knew exactly where Anna was going. I’d fielded the same — read more
What can therapists learn from the CIA? Experts versus the "Wisdom of the Crowd"

What can we therapists learn from the CIA? In a phrase, “When it comes to making predictions about important future events, don’t rely on experts!” After a spate of embarrassing, high-profile intelligence failures, a recent story showed how a relatively small group of average people made better predictions about critical world events than highly-trained analysts with access to classified information. — read more
How not to be among the 70-95% of practitioners and agencies that fail

Our field is full of good ideas, strategies that work. Each year, practitioners and agencies devote considerable time and resources to staying current with new developments. What does the research say about such efforts? When it comes to the implementation of new, evidence-based practices, traditional training strategies routinely produce only 5% to 30% success rates. Said another way, 70-95% of training fails — read more
Feedback in Groups: New Tools, New Evidence

Groups are an increasingly popular mode for delivering behavioral health services. Few would deny that using the same hour to treat mutliple people is more cost effective. A large body of research shows it to be as effective in general as individually delivered treatments. Now clinicians can incorporate feedback into the group therapy using a brief, scientifically validated — read more
A Lotta Help from One’s Friends: The Role of Community in the Pursuit of Excellence

Dateline: Chicago, IL USA Hard not to be impressed with the USA Women’s Gymnastic team. What skill, percision, expertise, and excellence. By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the interviews. In all instances, each and every one has focused on the team. Despite some in the media attempting to make stars out of the individual members,… — read more
Feedback Informed Treatment as Evidence-Based Practice

Back in November, I blogged about the ICCE application to SAMSHA’s National Registry for consideration of FIT as an official evidence-based approach (EBP). Given the definition of EBP by the Institute of Medicine and the American Psychological Association, Feedback Informed Treatment seems a perfect, well, FIT. According to the IOM and APA, evidence-based practice means… — read more
A Handy "Little Helper" for the Outcome Rating Scale: A Freebie from the ACE Conference Committee

This last week the planning committee for the upcoming Achieving Clinical Excellence (ACE) conference meet once again in Horsholm, Denmark. In the picture from left to right: Liz Plutt, Bill Andrews, myself, Rick Plutt (Conference Chair), and Bogdan Ion. Taking the photo was Susanne Bargmann. The agenda for the three day event is now set: — read more
Goodbye Mr. & Ms. Know-it-All: Redefining Competence in the Era of Increasing Complexity

Every day behavioral health professionals make hundreds of decisions. As experts in the field, they meet and work successfully with diverse clients presenting an array of different difficulties. Available evidence indicates that the average person who receives care is better off than 80% of those with similar problems that do not. Outcomes in mental… — read more
Getting FIT: Another Opportunity

The March Advanced Intensive in Feedback Informed Treatment is full! Not a single space left. For several weeks, we put folks on a waiting list. When that reached nearly 20, we told most they’d probably have to wait until next year to attend. Wait no more! The ICCE is pleased to announce a second, "Advanced… — read more
Looking Back, Looking Forward

Bidding goodbye to last year and welcoming the new always puts me in a reflective frame of mind. How did my life, work, and relationships go? What are my hopes for the future? Just two short years ago, together with colleagues from around the world, the International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE) was launched. Today,… — read more
Making History in Delft, Holland: The Launch of the first Consumer-Driven Outcome Management App

Dateline: October 18, 2011 Chicago, Illinois USA Last week I was in Europe: three days in Norway, a week in Sweden, and a day in Holland. In a day or two, I’ll say more about developments in Norway and the launch of the largest study in history on FIT in Sweden. Meanwhile, I’m pleased to… — read more
Getting FIT: The Advanced Intensive Training

Dateline: January 19, 2011 Buffalo, New York The New Year is here and travel/training season is in full swing. Last week, I was in Ohio and Virginia. This week New York and Idaho (keep your weather fingers crossed, it’s going to be dicey getting from here to there and home again). Interest in "Feedback Informed… — read more
Hope Transcends: Learning from our Clients

"Hope Transcends" was the theme of the 39th Annual Summer Institute on Substance Abuse and Mental Health held in Newark, Delaware this last week. I had the honor of working with 60+ clinicians, agency managers, peer supports, and consumers of mental health services presenting a two-day, intensive training on "feedback-informed clinical work." I met so… — 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
O Canada! Leading the Way to Improved Behavioral Health Services

Last month, I traveled back and forth between the United States and Canada several times. First, I was in Edmonton working with several hundred dedicated social workers, case managers, and therapists at The Family Centre. A week later I traveled to Saskatoon, spending two days talking about outcome-informed clinical work at the Addiction Professionals Associational of Saskatchewan… — read more
My New Year’s Resolution: The Study of Expertise

Most of my career has been spent providing and studying psychotherapy. Together with my colleagues at the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change, I’ve now published 8 books and too many articles and scholarly papers to count. If you are interested you can read more about and even download many of my publications here.… — read more