evidence based practice

How Should We Be Training the Next Generation of Therapists?

“We treat people, not disorders.”

This is my favourite quote from the live Q&A section of #EPT2020 Great Conversations, A Bolder Model: How Should We Be Training the Next Generation of Therapists? with William R. Miller, PhD and Scott D. Miller, PhD.

The question was “How can we shift therapist training from a pathology/diagnosis oriented model, towards a helping patients solve problems in life orientation?” There was a pause and then they both smiled. It was so affirming to hear them both echo, “I think the shift has already occurred.”

Watch these five minutes of gold from day two of the Evolution of Psychotherapy 2020 virtual experience.

Are you attending #EPT2020? I will be live in MyOutcomes virtual booth after both of these events.

Dec 12^th, 2:45-3:45PM Pacific Better Results: using Deliberate Practice to Improve Therapeutic Effectiveness

Dec 12^th, 2020 4:15-5:15PM Pacific The initial interview – with Ellyn Bader, PhD – The Couples Institute and Otto F. Kernberg, MD, FAPA – Weill Cornell Medical College

I hope you will stop by Saturday during the break from 3:45 pm -4:15 PM and from 5:15- 5:45 Pacific and share your highlights with us.

If you are not attending, you are still free to join us in the Evo’20 Portal and take part in the live giveaways. Scott Miller will be joining me from 3:45 pm -4:15 to answer questions and announce winners in our Better Results Give away.

Join from your computer, tablet or smartphone with this link: https://www.gotomeet.me/CindyHansen/myoutcomes-evo20-live-portal

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Access Code: 259-958-101

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The Path to Successful Implementation Winds On

Interpreting MyOutcomes Data

Having completed the first step in implementing the Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT) system and the MyOutcomes software into your organization, you are probably feeling ready to begin the next step. After all, you and your staff have been using MyOutcomes for several months. You now find your coffers filled with FIT data.

So, what are you to do now?

As you certainly know by now, routinely measuring client feedback is vital for building and sustaining a more efficient and effective practice. But numbers from this measurement laid out on a spreadsheet don't mean much without also having the ability to interpret and apply the data to real cases, to real clinicians, to real practices, and to a real agency.

Where do you get the training and guidance to dig into the data so that it will inform your clinician's therapy and contribute to their professional growth?

We have the answer to that question. We have a number of training options available to you. You will want to talk with our staff to see what is best for you. On the other hand, if you have already purchased training, e.g. our On Track program, you may be already set to go. You need only schedule a meeting with your training consultant.

Here is a short list of what a consultation can provide to you:

1) Connect the data to deliberate practice and ongoing session adjustments. This, in turn, will help facilitate reducing no shows, decreasing dropouts, and creating opportunities for more service recipients to have success;

2) Find out what the graphs tell you in a glance;

3) Understand individual practitioner and organizational/agency effect size for sessions;

4) Discover how to use the data to inform funders and oversight agencies; 5) Use the average number of sessions and the percentage meeting Expected Treatment Response to create professional growth opportunities while increasing morale and offsetting vicarious trauma.

If you are ready to continue on your path to becoming an evidence-based practice, we are here to walk that path with you. If you are ready for your agency to move to the next level, please reach out to us or contact your consultant/trainer to schedule a consultation.

August 13, 2019 by Karl A. Peuser, PhD Feedback Informed Treatment

PCOMS in Practice

therapy feedback system, outcome measures, scott miller, pcoms;

PCOMS or Partners for Change Outcome Management System is a SAMHSA approved evidence-based practice and is a practical solution to both the therapist's and the agency's need for being able to measure outcomes and achieve desired results. It doesn't change the way a practitioner works but makes their work better as it is atheoretical and just complements the clinician's theoretical way of work. It can be incorporated into any model or treatment orientation and can be applied to clients of almost all diagnostic categories.

It takes only a few minutes to complete and is extremely practical and feasible to implement. Clients complete the four-item forms in a minute and the total time required by the therapist to gather meaning from this data is typically less than 5 minutes.

The beauty of PCOMS is that it incorporates the most robust predictors of therapeutic success into an outcome management system that partners with clients while honouring the daily pressure of front line clinicians. It measures the most robust indicators of therapeutic success, the clients' view of their early change, as measured by the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS). The ORS measures and records it so that something can be done at an initial stage to manage the entire process. The other predictor is the alliance between the client and the therapist and is measured by the Session Rating Scale (SRS).

MyOutcomes has taken all this research and put it in a web-based system that streamlines data entry and interpret results with the help of easy to understand graphs and feedback messages.

Watch this short video clip where Dr Barry Duncan, director of the Heart and Soul of Change Project, talks about the benefits of PCOMS in practical therapy.

You can have instant access to this practical tool and experience for yourself a typical session using MyOutcomes.

Follow the link for instant access now! CLICK HERE

March 26, 2014 by Karl A. Peuser, PhD PCOMS

Not convinced of the highly touted benefits of Evidence-Based Practice?

What is Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)?

Evidence-Based Practice is an interdisciplinary approach to clinical practice, which is becoming more and more common since its formal introduction in 1992. It started in the medical field, as evidence-based medicine, before spreading to other fields such as psychology. The basic standards are that all practical decisions made, should be based on research studies and that these research studies are selected and interpreted according to some specific norms, characteristic of EBP. Typically such norms consider quantitative studies according to a narrow set of criteria of what counts as evidence.

Should practitioners use evidence-based practices in therapy?

This is a grey area for many therapists. Of course, therapists want to provide the best care possible, by integrating the best available evidence with their own experience, along with the characteristics and needs of their patients. And the whole idea behind evidence-based practices sounds simple enough: you apply the appropriate intervention to the problem your client is having, and the client gets better. This seems like a perfect solution, but as many providers of Evidence-Based Programs and Practice will tell you, it is not as simple as reading from an instruction manual.

Some therapists argue that by simply following the instructions, they are taking the whole meaning of actually being a therapist out of therapy â€“ the human connection, the understanding, and the trust. While there are other therapists who insist that using anything that is not evidence-based is negligent. Evidence-based practices give therapists a framework to follow, what should be taking place in therapy with their clients, and how well the clients are progressing. Using evidence-based practices can help protect the client from a therapist who is using a practice that is unproven and can even be harmful to the patient.

If you, like many others, fall into the gray area when it comes to EBP, consider MyOutcomes. MyOutcomes has developed a simple, web-based outcome-tracking tool that uses two well-established, highly valid, four-item scales, the Outcome Rating Scale and the Session Rating Scale, designed for frontline clinicians to use in every session. Not only are the scales user-friendly, analysis of client improvement and identification of at-risk cases is clear, simple and secure. And better yet, MyOutcomes is a SAMHSA approved EBP, included in it's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

Evidence-based practice is the conscientious, definitive, and thorough use of the best evidence we currently have, in making decisions about the care of each individual patient. MyOutcomes brings the client's voice into each session, and also provides normative data and feedback on how they are doing, so not only is it evidence-based, it doesn't remove the meaning of being a therapist from therapy. You get an evidence-based practice with the personal touch only a therapist can provide.

January 25, 2014 by Cindy Hansen Evidence Based Psychotherapy

PCOMS – NREPP Accreditation Progress

The science on which MyOutcomes is based, the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) has passed the second hurdle on the road to accreditation with SAMHS’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). NREPP’s Quality of Research ratings are indicators of the strength of evidence supporting the intervention. The quality of research category consists of six criteria that rate the strength of evidence supporting the results or outcomes of the intervention. NREPP uses very specific standardized criteria to rate the evidence. They are reliability and validity of measures, intervention fidelity, missing data and attrition, potential confounding variables and appropriateness of analysis.

The next hurdle on the road to accreditation is Readiness for Dissemination. The criteria for this stage are the availability of implementation materials, training and support resources and quality assurance procedures.

PCOMS recognized as an Evidence-Based Practice

August 17, 2012 by Cindy Hansen PCOMS