public behavioral health – Scott D.Miller

Is Psychotherapy Dead?

"AMERICANS PREFER DRUGS" screams the headline posted by the Reuters news service and attributed to Consumer Reports–one of the most respected periodical for the average American reader. "NEARLY 80 PERCENT TAKE A PILL FOR DEPRESSION," the article continues. Read a little further and do some searching around on the internet and a different story emerges. Americans it turns… — read more
Cha-cha-cha-changes on a Grand Scale: Think Tank Meets in Chicago

David Mee-Lee, MD Bill Miller, Ph.D. Scott D. Miller, Ph.D. Jim Prochaska, Ph.D. Don Kuhl, CEO Change is in the air. Whether in the United States or Europe, Asia or Australia, the field of behavioral health is undergoing a period of dramatic change. Some would say, "transformation." At least that’s the verdict of the group… — 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
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
More Eruptions (in Europe and in Research)

Dateline: Tuesday, 8:21pm, April 20th, 2010, Skellefteå, Sweden What an incredible week. Spent the day today working with 250 social workers, case managers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and agency directors in the far nothern town of Skellefteå, Sweden. Many practitioners here are already measuring outcomes on an ongoing basis and using the information to improve the results of their work… — read more
Eruptions in Europe and in Research

Dateline: 11:20 am, April 18th, 2010 Today I was supposed to fly from Stockholm, Sweden to the far northern town of Skelleftea–a flight that takes a little over an hour. Instead, I’m sitting on a train headed for Sundsvall, the first leg of a 12 hour trip that will include a 6 hour bus ride… — read more
Improving Outcomes in the Treatment of Obesity via Practice-Based Evidence: Weight Loss, Nutrition, and Work Productivity

Obesity is a large and growing problem in the United States and elswhere. Data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that 33% Americans are obese. When overweight people are added to the mix, the figure climbs to a staggering 66%! The problem is not likely to go away soon or on its own as the same figures apply… — read more
Neurobabble Redux: Comments from Dr. Mark Hubble on the Latest Fad in the World of Therapy Spark Comment and Controversy

Last week, my long time colleague and friend, Dr. Mark Hubble blogged about the current interest of non-medically trained therapists in the so-called "neurobiology of human behavior." In my intro to his post, I "worried" out loud about the field’s tendency to search for legitimzing foundational metaphors. Over the years, psychotherapy has flirted with… — read more
Neurobabble: Comments from Dr. Mark Hubble on the Latest Fad in the World of Therapy

Rarely does a day go by without hearing about another "advance" in the neurobiology of human behavior. Suddenly, it seems, the world of psychotherapy has discovered that people have brains! And now where the unconscious, childhood, emotions, behaviors, and cognitions once where…neurons, plasticity, and magnetic resonance imagining now is. Alas, we are a field forever… — read more
Addressing the Financial Crisis in Public Behavioral Healthcare Head On in Chesterfield, Virginia

If you are following me on Twitter (and I hope you are), you know the last month has been extremely busy. This week I worked with clinicians in Peterborough, Ontario Canada. Last week, I was in Nashville, Tennessee and Richmond Virginia. Prior to that, I spent nearly two weeks in Europe, providing training and consultations in the… — read more
The Future of Behavioral Health: Integrated Care & Entrepreneurship

Nicholas Cummings, Ph.D. Sometime in late 1986 I wrote a letter to Dr. Nicholas Cummings. As a then student-member of the American Psychological Association (APA), I was automatically subscribed to and receiving the American Psychologist. In the April issue, Dr. Cummings published an article, provocatively titled, "The Dismantling of Our Health System: Strategies for the Survival of Psychological Practice." … — read more
The Turn to Outcomes: A Revolution in Behavioral Health Practice

Get ready. The revolution is coming (if not already here). Whether you are a direct service provider (psychologist, counselor, marriage and family therapist), agency, broker, or funder, you will be required to measure and likely report the outcomes of your clinical work. Jay Lebow, Ph.D. Just this month, Dr. Jay Lebow, a professor of psychology at the… — read more
Behavioral Healthcare in Holland: The Turn Away from the Single-payer, Government-Based Reimbursement System

Several years ago I was contacted by a group of practitioners located in the largest city in the north of the Netherlands–actually the capital of the province known as Groningen. The "Platform," as they are known, were wondering if I’d be willing to come and speak at one of their upcoming conferences. The practice environment was undergoing dramatic change,… — read more
Accountability in Behavioral Health: Steps for Dealing with Cutbacks, Shortfalls, and Tough Economic Conditions

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I get around. In the past few months, I visited Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark (to name but a few countries) as well as criss-crossed the United States. If I were asked to sum up the state of public behavioral health agencies in a single word, the word–with very… — read more
Evidence-based practice or practice-based evidence? Article in the Los Angeles Times addresses the debate in behavioral health

January 11th, 2010 "Debate over Cognitive & Traditional Mental Health Therapy" by Eric Jaffe The fight debate between different factons, interest groups, scholars within the field of mental health hit the pages of the Los Angeles Times this last week. At issue? Supposedly, whether the field will become "scientific" in practice or remain mired in traditions of… — read more
"What Works" in Norway

Dateline: Tromsø, Norway Place: Rica Ishavshotel For the last two days, I’ve had the privilege of working with 125+ clinicians (psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and addiction treatment professionals) in far northern Norway. The focus of the two-day training was on "What Works" in treatment, in particular examining what constitutes "evidence-based practice" and how to… — read more
Are all treatments approaches equally effective?

Bruce Wampold, Ph.D. Late yesterday, I blogged about a soon-to-be published article in Clinical Psychology Review in which the authors argue that the finding by Benish, Imel, & Wampold (2008) of equivalence in outcomes among treatments for PTSD was due to, "bias, overgeneralization, lack of transparency, and poor judgement." Which interpretation of the evidence is correct? Are there… — read more
DODO BIRD HYPOTHESIS PROVEN FALSE! Study of PTSD finally proves Wampold, Miller, and other "common factor" proponents wrong

Researchers Anke Ehlers, Jonathon Bisson, David Clark, Mark Creamer, Steven Pilling, David Richards, Paula Schnurr, Stuart Turner, and William Yule have finally done it! They slayed the "dodo." Not the real bird of course–that beast has been extinct since the mid to late 17th century but rather the "dodo bird" conjecture first articulated by Saul Rozenzweig, Ph.D.… — read more