Looking for Results in All the Wrong Places: What Makes Feedback Work?
As anyone knows who reads this blog or has been to one of my workshops, I am a fan of feedback. Back in the mid-1990's, I began using Lynn Johnson's 10-item Session Rating Scale in my clinical work. His book, Psychotherapy in the Age of Accountability, and our long relationship, ...
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REACHing the Next Level of Clinical Performance: What it Really Takes
Do any of these people look familiar? Well, of course, I'm the guy in the middle pointing. To my left is the rock and roll guitarist Joe Walsh. On my right is world-renowned, card mechanic Richard Turner. Why have I pictured myself sandwiched between these two? Because they are both ...
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Obesity Redux: The RFL Results and complex Nature of Truth and Science
Back in April, I blogged about research published by Ryan Sorrell on the use of feedback-informed treatment in a telephonically-divered weight management program. The study, which appeared in the journal Disease Management*, not only found that the program and feedback led to weight loss, but also significant improvements in distress, health eating behaviors (70%), ...
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Feedback Informed Treatment: Update
Chicago, IL (USA) The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity here in Chicago. First, the "Advanced Intensive." Next came the annual "Training of Trainers." Each week, the room was filled to capacity with practitioners, researchers, supervisors, and agency directors from around the globe receiving in-depth training in ...
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The Revolution in Sweden: More Evidence and A Brief Follow Up
On May 13th, I blogged about a change in guidelines for clinical practice in Sweden. As in many other countries, CBT enjoyed near exclusive status as "evidence-based" on most official lists of approved treatments. Billions of Swedish crowns were spent on the approach that ultimately had no effect on the ...
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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 ...
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The DSM 5: Mental Health’s "Disappointingly Sorry Manual" (Fifth Edition)
Have you seen the results from the field trials for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual? The purpose of the research was to test the reliability of the diagnoses contained in the new edition. Reliable (ri-lahy-uh-buhl), meaning "trustworthy, dependable, consistent." Before looking at the data, consider the ...
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The International Center for Clinical Excellence: Using Social Networks for "Real Time" Research
The International Center for Clinical Excellence was officially lauched at the Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in December 2009. Since that time, membership has grown steadily. With over 3800 members, the ICCE is the largest, web-based community of behavioral health professionals dedicated to improving the quality and outcome of service delivery. ...
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More from Sweden
Three short weeks ago, I was in Stockholm, Sweden talking about "what works" in clinical practice. As I announced at the time, my visit coincided with an announcement by the organization governing mental health practice in the country. For the better part of a decade, CBT enjoyed near exclusive status ...
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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 ...
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Revolution in Swedish Mental Health Care: Brief Update
In April 2010, I blogged about Jan Larsson, a Swedish clinician who works with people on the margins of the mental health system. Jan was dedicated to seeking feedback, using the ORS and SRS to tailor services to the individuals he met. It wasn't easy. Unilke most, he did not ...
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Revolution in Swedish Mental Health Practice: The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Monopoly Gives Way
Sunday, May 13th, 2012 Arlanda Airport, Sweden Over the last decade, Sweden, like most Western countries, embraced the call for “evidence-based practice.” Socialstyrelsen, the country’s National Board of Health and Welfare, developed and disseminated a set of guidelines (“riktlinger”) for mental health practice. Topping the list of methods was, not ...
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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 ...
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Mental Health Practice in a Global Economy
Did you feel it? The seismic shift that occurred in field of mental health just a little over a month ago? No? Nothing? Well, in truth, it wasn't so much a rip in the space-time continuum as a run. That "run," however, promises to forever alter the fabric of clinical ...
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The Outcome and Session Rating Scales: Support Tools
Japan, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, Israel, Poland, Chile, Guam, Finland, Hungary, Mexico, Australia, China, the United States...and many, many more. What do all these countries have in common? In each, clinicians and agencies are using the ORS and SRS scales to inform and improve behavioral health services. Some are ...
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Is the "Summer of Love" Over? Positive Publication Bias Plagues Pharmaceutical Research
Evidence-based practice is only as good as the available "evidence"--and on this subject, research points to a continuing problem with both the methodology and type of studies that make it into the professional literature. Last week, PloS Medicine, a peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Public Library of Science, published ...
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