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 ...
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Outcomes in the Artic: An Interview with Norwegian Practitioner Konrad Kummernes
Dateline: Mosjoen, Norway The last stop on my training tour around northern Norway was Mosjoen. The large group of psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, case managers, and physicians laughed uproariously when I talked about the bumpy, "white-knuckler" ride aboard the small twin-engine airplane that delivered me to the snowy, mountain-rimmed town. They were ...
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Practice-Based Evidence in Norway: An Interview with Psychologist Mikael Aagard
For those of you following me on Facebook--and if you're not, click here to start--you know that I was traveling above the arctic circle in Norway last week. I always enjoy visiting the Scandinavian countries. My grandparents immigrated from nearby Sweden. I lived there myself for a number of years (and speak ...
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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 ...
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"What Works" in Norway
Dateline: Tromso, 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 ...
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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, & Wamppold (2008) of equivalence in outcomes among treatments for PTSD was due to, "bias, over-generalization, lack of transparency, and poor judgement." Which interpretation of the evidence ...
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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 ...
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Why ongoing, formal feedback is critical for improving outcomes in healthcare
Not long ago, I had a rather lengthy email exchange with a well-known, high profile psychotherapist in the United States. Feedback was the topic. We both agreed that feedback was central to successful psychotherapy. We differed, however, in terms of method. I argued for the use of simple, standardized measures of progress and alliance (e.g., ...
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Research on the Outcome Rating Scale, Session Rating Scale & Feedback
"How valid and reliable are the ORS and SRS?" "What do the data say about the impact of routine measurement and feedback on outcome and retention in behavioral health?" "Are the ORS and SRS 'evidence-based?'" These and other questions regarding the evidence supporting the ORS, SRS, and feedback are becoming increasingly ...
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Magical Moments in Kansas
Registrations are already coming in for the first International Conference on "Achieving Clinical Excellence." Not too long ago, I announced that internationally known researcher K. Anders Erickson, Ph.D.--the "expert on experts"--had agreed to present at the event. At that time, I also indicated that a number of internationally accomplished performers from a variety ...
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New Year’s Resolutions: Progress Report and Future Plans
One year ago today, I blogged about my New Year's resolution to "take up the study of expertise and expert performance." The promise marked a significant departure from my work up to that point in time and was not without controversy: "Was I no longer interested in psychotherapy?" "Had I given up ...
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The Study of Excellence: A Radically New Approach to Understanding "What Works" in Behavioral Health
"What works" in therapy? Believe it or not, that question--as simple as it is--has and continues to spark considerable debate. For decades, the field has been divided. On one side are those who argue that the efficacy of psychological treatments is due to specific factors (e.g., changing negative thinking patterns) inherent ...
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Holidays and Suicide: Tis’ the Season NOT!
The notion that suicides increase during the holiday season is as traditional as "Santa Claus"--and, according to statistics dating back at least a decade, just as illusory. In fact, research actually shows suicide rates to be the lowest in December! According to Dan Romer, a researcher at the Annenberg Public ...
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The Effects of Feedback on Medication Compliance and Outcome: The University of Pittsburgh Study
A number of years ago, I was conducting a workshop in Pittsburgh. At some point during the training, I met Dr. Jan Pringle, the director of the Program Evaluation Research Unit in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh. Jan had an idea: use outcome feedback to improve ...
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The Evolution of Psychotherapy: Meeting Michael Hoyt
I'm still reeling from the experience in Anaheim this last week. I met so many leaders in the field, heard so many presentations on cutting edge clinical practice--as well as was reminded of some "classic" principles of effective psychotherapy. One of the people I met was colleague and friend, Michael ...
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