Abstract
The field of mental health treatment is making efforts to better serve all psychotherapy clients, but especially the 5–10% of clients who deteriorate in treatment (Lambert & Ogles, 2004) and the 30–60% who drop out prematurely (Pekarik & Stephenson, 1988). These efforts involve collaboration between research and practice. Both research and practice have been treatment focused for much of their history, primarily examining treatment efficacy or effectiveness, and never quite settling on the generalizability or applicability of specific treatments. The patient-focused research paradigm has shifted the focus from treatment outcomes on the group level to outcomes on the individual client level. This movement involves outcome monitoring for purposes of treatment planning and quality care. Some of these monitoring systems include early warning systems that could help identify and better serve clients who are at risk for negative outcome. The present study validated previous warning system studies for youth and replicated tests for variables that were predictive of youth change trajectories using the Youth Outcome Questionnaire-30 (YOQ; Burlingame et al., 2004). This study also replicated the accuracy of a warning system for at-risk youth clients, exploring various approaches to creating the cutoffs the warning system uses for its predictions, and reporting the respective accuracy of each. This study contributes to future studies comparing outcomes between client groups whose therapists do or do not receive systematic feedback. This endeavor offers many benefits to quality improvement efforts being made by clinicians and managed care organizations.
Degree
PhD
College and Department
David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Nelson, Philip Legrand, "Change Trajectories and Early Warning System to Identify Youth at Risk for Negative Psychotherapy Outcome" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2212.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2212
Date Submitted
2010-07-16
Document Type
Dissertation
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd3867
Keywords
system, psychotherapy outcomes, youth, change trajectories
Language
English