Client feedback in psychological therapy for children and adolescents with mental health problems

Exploration, Preparation, and Implementation of Standardized Assessment in a Multi-agency School Behavioral Health Network

School mental health treatment services offer broad public health impact and could benefit from more widespread implementation and sustainment of standardized assessments (SA). This demonstration study describes one approach to increase SA use in a large school behavioral health network using the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment (EPIS) framework. Mental health administrator interviews with four participating agencies and a multidisciplinary planning team informed SA measure selection and implementation supports. The SA initiative was implemented during one school year, including system-wide training and ongoing implementation supports for 95 clinicians. Linear mixed effect models revealed improvements in clinician attitudes about the SA for clinical utility and treatment planning immediately following the half-day training (N = 95, p < .001). Clinicians self-reported a significant increase in use of SA for new clients during intakes (p < .001) over time and 71.4% of expected SA data were submitted. Qualitative feedback, including recommendations to offer more SA choices and beginning new SA data collection earlier in the school year, was integrated to inform quality improvements and future sustainment efforts.

Introducing a Measurement Feedback System for Youth Mental Health: Predictors and Impact of Implementation in a Community Agency

Measurement feedback systems (MFSs) that routinely collect and report client progress to mental health therapists have demonstrated beneficial impact on outcomes in numerous studies, with evidence that there is a dose-response relationship related to the implementation of the MFS. The current study examined the impact of MFS implementation (Implementation Index) on youth symptom outcomes separately by caregiver and youth self-report. Additionally, we tested the extent to which Implementation Index rates varied by individual therapists and clients, and whether therapist and client characteristics predicted MFS implementation. Methods: Administrative data (client charts, youth- and caregiver-reported Youth Outcome Questionnaires) for 229 youth (52.83% Latinx, 42.79% girls, M age = 10.33) treated during a 1-year period at a community mental health organization in Central Texas were analyzed using multi-level modeling. Caregiver-reported symptoms decreased faster for those with a higher MFS Implementation Index. Between-group differences among therapists accounted for a significant proportion of variance in the Implementation Index for caregiver report, whereas client differences accounted for most of the variance in the Implementation Index for youth self-report. Therapist trainee status predicted a significant increase in the Implementation Index for caregiver-report data. Youth symptom improvement as reported by caregivers varied with the extent of MFS implementation fidelity, and MFS implementation fidelity was higher for clients treated by trainees relative to staff therapists for caregiver report of symptoms.

Young People's Satisfaction With the Online Mental Health Service eheadspace: Development and Implementation of a Service Satisfaction Measure

BACKGROUND

Online youth mental health services are an expanding approach to meeting service need and can be used as the first step in a stepped-care approach. However, limited evidence exists regarding satisfaction with online services, and there is no standardized service satisfaction measure.

OBJECTIVE

This study implemented an online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire within eheadspace, an online youth mental health service. The aims were to test the questionnaire's psychometric properties and identify current levels of satisfaction among service users, as well as to identify client and service contact characteristics that affect satisfaction.

METHODS

Data were collected from 2280 eheadspace clients via an online questionnaire advertised and accessed through the eheadspace service platform between September 2016 and February 2018. Client and service contact characteristics, potential outcomes, and session and service feedback data were collected.

RESULTS

The service satisfaction questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency for the overall satisfaction scale (alpha=.95) and its three subscales: session satisfaction, potential outcomes, and service satisfaction. A three-factor model was the best fit to the data, although including a higher order unidimensional construct of overall satisfaction was also a reasonable fit. Overall, young people were very satisfied with eheadspace (mean 3.60, SD 0.83). Service characteristics, but not client characteristics, were significantly associated with satisfaction. Young people were more satisfied with eheadspace when they had greater engagement as evident through receiving esupport rather than briefer service provision, having a longer session and greater interaction with the clinician, and not previously attending a face-to-face headspace center.

CONCLUSIONS

The online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire developed for and implemented in eheadspace showed good psychometric properties. The measure is brief, has good internal consistency, and has a clear factor structure. The measure could be adapted for use in other online youth mental health services. The young people using eheadspace and completing the feedback survey were highly satisfied. Greater engagement with the online service was shown to be associated with greater satisfaction. No specific client demographic groups were shown to be more or less satisfied.

Client feedback in psychological therapy for children and adolescents with mental health problems

BACKGROUND

Childhood and adolescent mental health problems are a serious and growing concern worldwide. Research suggests that psychotherapy can have a significant and positive impact on children and adolescents with mental health problems, such as anxiety disorders, depression and conduct disorders. Client feedback tools serve as a method of monitoring clients' progress and providing feedback from clients to therapists during the therapeutic process. These tools may help to enhance clinicians' decision-making by allowing them to adapt their treatment plans as the therapy progresses, resulting in a reduction of treatment failures. Research has shown that client feedback tools have a positive effect on adults' psychotherapy. This review addresses whether feedback tools in child and adolescent therapy could help therapists to better treat their young clients.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the effects of client feedback in psychological therapy on child and adolescent mental health outcomes.

SEARCH METHODS

We searched the Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Controlled Trials Register (CCMDCTR, Studies and References), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid MEDLINE (1946-), Embase (1974-) and PsycINFO (1967-) to 3 April 2018. We did not apply any restriction on date, language or publication status to the search.

SELECTION CRITERIA

We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared client feedback to no client feedback in psychological therapies for children and adolescents.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Two review authors independently assessed references for inclusion eligibility and extracted outcome, risk of bias and study characteristics data into customised forms. We contacted study authors to obtain missing data. We analysed dichotomous data using risk ratios (RRs) and calculated their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). For continuous data, we calculated mean differences (MDs), or standardised mean differences (SMDs) if different scales were used to measure the same outcome. We used a random-effects model for all analyses.

MAIN RESULTS

We included six published RCTs, conducted in the USA (5 RCTs) and Israel (1 RCT), with 1097 children and adolescents (11 to 18 years old), in the review.We are very uncertain about the effect of client feedback on improvement of symptoms, as reported by youth in the short term because we considered evidence to be of very low-certainty due to high risk of bias and very serious inconsistency in the effect estimates from the different studies. Similarly, we are very uncertain about the effect of client feedback on treatment acceptability, due to high risk of bias, imprecision in the results, and indirectness of measuring the outcome (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.61; 2 studies, 237 participants; very low-certainty).Overall, most studies reported and carried out randomisation and allocation concealment adequately. None of the studies were blinded or attempted to blind participants and personnel and were at high risk of performance bias, and only one study had blind outcome assessors. All of the studies were at high or unclear risk of attrition bias mainly due to poor, non-transparent reporting of participants' flow through the studies.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

Due to the paucity of high-quality data and considerable inconsistency in results from different studies, there is currently insufficient evidence to reach any firm conclusions regarding the role of client feedback in psychological therapies for children and adolescents with mental health problems, and further research on this important topic is needed.Future studies should avoid risks of performance, detection and attrition biases, as seen in the studies included in this review. Studies from countries other than the USA are needed, as well as studies including children younger than 10 years.