what are the measurable criteria you use to assess how you know treatment is working?

Measuring progress, effectiveness, and outcomes also helps determine when therapy is done, i.e., when a person has achieved what they wanted from therapy and the treatment can end.

Full Answer

What is the criteria for evaluating treatment guidelines?

The Criteria for Evaluating Treatment Guidelines should be regarded as guidelines, which means that it is essentially aspirational in intent. It is intended to facilitate and assist the evaluation of treatment guidelines but is not intended to be mandatory, exhaustive, or definitive and may not be applicable to every situation.

Why do we need to assess the quality of treatment?

On the clinical side, treatment providers need instruments with which to assess the quality of treatment provision, as well as the progress of their clients during treatment. Their motivation is the same as that among researchers: Such instruments are seen as essential elements in the effort to improve clinical care.

How do we evaluate the efficacy of treatments?

Methods for evaluating efficacy often begin with health care professionals' judgments and then progress through more highly systematized research strategies. For some treatments, the most accessible source of information on treatment efficacy may be the judgment of health care professionals and patients who have experience with the treatments.

How reliable are the tools and questionnaires in the treatment field?

The treatment field depends on tools or questionnaires that, for the most part, have been found valid and reliable with two populations of women—Caucasians and African Americans. Although translations of some instruments for non–English-speaking populations have been made, the validity of the adapted instruments is not always documented.

How do you measure effectiveness of treatment?

Validity in use, including responsiveness, interpretation of effects, and generalizability to diverse populations, is the most important measurement characteristic for treatment effectiveness.

How do you monitor progress in treatment?

Psychotherapists may determine progress based on achievement of goals with quarterly updates to the goals. Another approach in the most recent years has been a combination of treatment plans and the use of rating scales and other short standardized assessments to track symptoms over time.

What is the best way to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapy?

Most research assessing the effectiveness of psychotherapy has examined very specific is- sues. Which technique is more effective and how effectiveness is moderated by differences among patients, therapists, and settings are the typical foci of psychotherapy outcome research (see 207,287).

What factors do you assess before recommending a treatment plan?

Treatment plans usually follow a simple format and typically include the following information:The patient's personal information, psychological history and demographics.A diagnosis of the current mental health problem.High-priority treatment goals.Measurable objectives.A timeline for treatment progress.More items...•

What is a key function in treatment monitoring systems?

​What is a key function in treatment monitoring systems? The Beck inventories produce descriptive answers that do not need interpretation. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STA-I) measures both transitory anxiety and more stable personality features that predispose a client to more chronic levels of anxiety.

How do you evaluate client progress?

How to measure achievement of client goalsChanged knowledge and access to information.Changed skills.Changed behaviours.Changed confidence to make own decisions.Changed engagement with relevant support services.Changed impact of an immediate crisis.

What are the methods that psychologists generally use to assess the effectiveness of their treatment?

Psychologists use outcome research, that is, studies that assess the effectiveness of medical treatments, to determine the effectiveness of different therapies.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy?

Pre/Post Surveys. The most common method of measuring the effectiveness of our groups is through pre/post surveys. Some counselors choose to give a pre/post survey to your students. I recommend only doing that if they're 5th grade or above.

What is the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of each treatment provided to each client?

It is important to evaluate the treatment against the consultation to identify whether the treatment achieved the desired outcomes and to what extent it was effective in doing so.

What are treatment goals examples?

Treatment Plan Goals and Objectives Examples of goals include: The patient will learn to cope with negative feelings without using substances. The patient will learn how to build positive communication skills. The patient will learn how to express anger towards their spouse in a healthy way.

What are examples of treatment plans?

Examples include physical therapy, rehabilitation, speech therapy, crisis counseling, family or couples counseling, and the treatment of many mental health conditions, including:Depression.Anxiety.Mood disorders.Crisis and Trauma Counseling.Stress.Personality Disorders, and more.

Why is it important for a client to be involved in their treatment planning?

Treatment plans are important because they act as a map for the therapeutic process and provide you and your therapist with a way of measuring whether therapy is working. It's important that you be involved in the creation of your treatment plan because it will be unique to you.

What is the DAPTI measure?

Measure: Drug and Alcohol Program Treatment Inventory (DAPTI)#N#Citation: Peterson et al. 1994 a, Swindle et al. 1995#N#Description: The DAPTI assesses the distinctive goals and activities of Alcoholics Anonymous/12–step treatment, the therapeutic community approach, cognitive–behavioral treatment, insight/psychodynamic treatment, rehabilitation, dual diagnosis treatment, medical model treatment, and marital/family systems therapy. The current DAPTI consists of four goal and four activity items to assess each of the eight orientations; the eight subscales had moderate to high internal consistency reliability estimates. Swindle and his colleagues (1995) provided validity data in the form of DAPTI subscale scores for programs with independently established treatment orientations and correlations with treatment services as assessed by the DAPSI (see table 1). The DAPTI also has been used to assess community residential facilities for substance abuse patients (Moos et al. 1995). More generally, treatment providers can use the DAPTI to determine the extent to which the treatment staff of a program have similar views about what the program is trying to accomplish and about the therapeutic activities to be used to accomplish the program’s treatment objectives.

How is quality of alcohol treatment determined?

The quality of alcohol treatment is determined, not only by the therapeutic techniques applied, but also by the characteristics of individual treatment providers (panel III in figure 1). In particular, this domain of variables refers to within–program variation in provider characteristics (aggregate, program–level staff characteristics are considered in panel II). Gerstein (1991) argued that “the competence, quality, and continuity of individual caregivers are likely to be critical elements in explaining the differential effectiveness of [substance abuse] treatment programs” (p. 139). In the alcohol treatment field, the few studies that have been conducted (e.g., W.R. Miller et al. 1980; Valle 1981; McLellan et al. 1988; Sanchez–Craig et al. 1991; Project MATCH Research Group 1998; for reviews, see Najavits and Weiss 1994; Najavits et al. 2000) indicate that therapist characteristics play an important role in determining clients’ treatment retention and outcomes.

What are the characteristics of a program?

Program–level characteristics (panel II in figure 1) are general factors related to the program’s organization and structure, policies, services, treatment orientation, social environment, and readiness for organizational change. Relevant organizational or structural variables include ownership, physical design features (e.g., number of buildings), size (number of patients), aggregate patient characteristics, types of staff, program policies, and desired length or amount of treatment. Policies are the structured procedures that programs use to address different situations (e.g., problem behaviors among patients). Program services include those activities oriented toward treating alcohol use disorders, as well as problems in other areas of patients’ lives. Treatment orientation refers to the treatment modality or modalities applied at the program (or in treatment research, in the treatment condition). Environmental characteristics refer here to the social climate of a program (e.g., Moos 1997). Finally, one new measure focuses on substance abuse programs’ readiness for change to implement evidence–based treatment practices.

What are the five treatment approaches?

2001#N#Description: This multidimensional instrument assesses five treatment approaches: psychodynamic or interpersonal, cognitive–behavioral, family systems or dynamics, 12–step, and case management. For each of the first four modalities, items assess beliefs underlying the approach, practices appropriate in individual therapy, and practices appropriate in group therapy. Case management is an individual approach, so no group practices items were included. In addition, items were developed to tap general “group techniques” (e.g., “encouraging peer social support”) and “practical counseling” (e.g.,“developing rapport and trust”). The instrument consists of 48 items that assess 14 subscales. Construct validity was supported by the results of a confirmatory factor analysis in which subscale items loaded on the factor they were intended to assess, but not on other factors. Corresponding belief and practice subscales correlated highly, except for case management. Cronbach alphas for all subscales except psychodynamic and family systems beliefs were above 0.50 and most were over 0.70 (Kasarabada et al. 2001, p. 287). The fact that some of the subscales consist of only three items contributed to low internal consistency estimates.

What is the National Drug and Alcoholism Treatment Unit Survey?

Measure: National Drug and Alcoholism Treatment Unit Survey (NDATUS)#N#Citation: Office of Applied Studies 1991#N#Description: The NDATUS is a brief questionnaire (five pages) that covers (a) the overall organization and structure of programs (ownership, funding sources and levels, organizational setting, capacity in different treatment settings using different treatment modalities, hours of operation, etc.), (b) staffing and staff characteristics, (c) services (e.g., methadone dosages), (d) policies, and (e) clients and client characteristics. The 1989 NDATUS was augmented in 1990 by the Drug Services Research Survey (DSRS) (Office of Applied Studies 1992 a, 1992 b) to obtain additional data in the areas of facility organization and staff, client data, services, and costs and charges. Using data from the 1991 NDATUS, Rodgers and Barnett (2000) found that private, for–profit substance abuse treatment programs tended to be smaller and more likely to provide treatment in only one setting. Public programs and nonprofit programs generally had more treatment staff; Federal and for–profit programs had more psychologists and physicians. In 1992, the NDATUS evolved into the Uniform Facility Data Set (UFDS), sponsored by the Office of Applied Studies.

What is ultimate outcome?

Ultimate outcomes (panel VIII in figure 1) refer to the end points that the treatment is supposed to effect. All treatment programs for alcohol use disorders attempt to impact drinking behavior, with many seeking to eliminate it entirely and others seeking to limit it to levels that do not cause adverse consequences. Some programs also seek to have a broader impact on patient functioning by effecting improvements in such life areas as employment, social functioning, physical health, and/or psychological functioning (for an in–depth discussion of outcome assessment, see Tonigan’s chapter in this Guide ). Treatment process models may specify different dimensions of treatment that should impact different areas of patients’ functioning.

What are proximal outcomes?

Proximal outcome variables (Rosen and Proctor 1981; panel VII in figure 1) refer to cognitions, attitudes, personality variables, or behaviors that, according to the treatment theory under investigation, should be affected by the treatment provided, and should , in turn, lead to positive ultimate outcomes (e.g., abstinence or reduced alcohol consumption). An Institute of Medicine (1989) panel found that “little research has been devoted to the short–term impact of specific [alcoholism treatment] program components” (p. 159), and suggested that such short–term gains could be studied quite readily. Proximal outcome variables can be assessed at any point between treatment entry and the assessment of ultimate outcomes. When assessed during treatment, proximal outcomes constitute an important method that clinicians can use to assess patients’ treatment progress. For researchers, proximal outcomes, assessed during or after treatment, are key components in treatment process analyses.

How to evaluate efficacy of a treatment?

Methods for evaluating efficacy often begin with health care professionals' judgments and then progress through more highly systematized research strategies. For some treatments, the most accessible source of information on treatment efficacy may be the judgment of health care professionals and patients who have experience with the treatments. It is important to distinguish between the context of discovery of an intervention and the context of verification of its clinical efficacy. Historically, some interventions that were later proven by systematic evaluation to be very powerful have arisen from clinical innovations and case studies. The question of whether particular interventions have beneficial effects is best answered using research methodologies that have been refined over many years to reduce the uncertainties inherent in subjective judgment alone and to increase confidence in the strength of the intervention. The systematic application of these research strategies also promotes the welfare of patients.

Why is it important to use guidelines in clinical practice?

Another common assumption is that standardizing treatment via guidelines will always be beneficial because it reduces practice variation. However, variation in clinical practice is often based on the needs of individual patients and their responses to specific treatments. When the application of guidelines results in a rigid system that eliminates the ability to respond to individual needs of the patient and the opportunity for self-correction in treatment, this can be detrimental to patient care.

Why should treatment guidelines be open to public scrutiny?

Treatment guidelines have the potential to influence the health care of many patients, and therefore the guidelines and the process used in their development should be open to public scrutiny. Moreover, failure to disclose the scientific justification for a guideline violates a basic principle of science, which requires open scrutiny and debate. Without the disclosure of adequate scientific information, guidelines are mere expressions of opinion.

Why are quasi experiments important?

Quasi experiments do not involve randomization but include other controls that are designed to rule out some threats to the internal validity of inferences regarding treatment efficacy. Some single-subject designs also include such controls. Randomized controlled experiments represent a more stringent way to evaluate treatment efficacy because they are the most effective way to rule out threats to internal validity in a single experiment. Random assignment of patients to conditions reduces the likelihood that the groups differ before treatment with respect to characteristics that could influence subsequent status. The advantage of randomized clinical trials is their ability to rule out rival plausible alternatives to the notion that the treatment produced an effect. However, they are potentially subject to several threats to their external and construct validity, some of which are described later in this document. Randomized controlled experiments are definitive only when all aspects of the experimental design, including the participant population, are fully representative of the phenomena of interest.

Why are guidelines important for treatment?

Good guidelines allow for flexibility in treatment selection so as to maximize the range of choices among effective treatment alternatives.

Why are guidelines promulgated?

Guidelines are promulgated to encourage high quality care. Ideally, they are not promulgated as a means of establishing the identity of a particular professional group or specialty, nor are they used to exclude certain persons from practicing in a particular area.

What is treatment guidelines?

That is, treatment guidelines are patient directed or patient focused as opposed to practitioner focused, and they tend to be condition or treatment specific (e.g., pediatric immunizations, mammography, depression).

What happens if a therapist acts inappropriately?

On the other hand, therapists who behave inappropriately can hinder therapeutic progress, or even do more harm than good. Therapists who act with prejudice, or without understanding of cultural differences between them and their patients, can end up making the patient distrustful of the therapist and of therapy in general. Those who, in a Freudian model, try to produce false memories of past trauma can end up setting a patient back in recovery. Finally, it should be obvious that a sexual relationship between a patient and therapist could be harmful to recovery; still, it happens, and is a serious ethical violation.

Why is it important to have a patient's impressions?

Obviously if a patient feels better, that's great. So in one sense, a patient's impressions are extremely important--the goal of therapy is, after all, to restore her to mental and emotional well-being. But for the purposes of determining which treatments are most effective in which situations, there are several problems with a patient's own impressions of her progress. The first is simply that people in distress tend to get better. This is known as regression to the mean, or average, and it's when people have a tendency to move toward an average level of functioning or happiness from whatever state they are in. If you're really happy, you're most likely to get sadder, and if you're really sad, you're most likely to get happier. People spend most of their time feeling average, so moods that are above or below average are likely to return to this average. Since people usually enter treatment because they're feeling especially bad, they're likely to get better over time not because of anything the therapist is doing, but simply because they're regressing to the mean.

Why do people with schizophrenia have lower recovery rates?

Patients least likely to get better tend to think negatively and behave hostilely. For reasons therapists don't thoroughly understand , personality disorders and psychotic disorders, like schizophrenia, tend to have lower rates of recovery in general.

Why is cognitive therapy effective?

These kinds of studies have shown that for depression and panic disorders, cognitive therapy is most effective, potentially because these disorders are in part caused by the kind of negative thinking directly addressed by cognitive therapy.

What does it mean to enroll in a course?

Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams.

What are the shortcomings of a therapist's evaluation?

Shortcomings of Therapist's Evaluations. Therapists' evaluations of patients are subject to all of the same problems as patients' evaluations. They, too, may mistake regression to the mean for positive effects of treatment.

Why is empathy important in therapy?

Importance of Empathy In The Treatment Process. Regardless of the strategy they use, therapists who are warm and empathetic tend to have the highest rates of success with their patients. On the other hand, therapists who behave inappropriately can hinder therapeutic progress, or even do more harm than good.

What are the three critical concepts of assessment?

The assessment process involves three critical concepts – reliability, validity, and standardization . Actually, these three are important to science in general. First, we want the assessment to be reliable or consistent. Outside of clinical assessment, when our car has an issue and we take it to the mechanic, we want to make sure that what one mechanic says is wrong with our car is the same as what another says, or even two others. If not, the measurement tools they use to assess cars are flawed. The same is true of a patient who is suffering from a mental disorder. If one mental health professional says the person suffers from major depressive disorder and another says the issue is borderline personality disorder, then there is an issue with the assessment tool being used (in this case, the DSM and more on that in a bit). Ensuring that two different raters are consistent in their assessment of patients is called interrater reliability. Another type of reliability occurs when a person takes a test one day, and then the same test on another day. We would expect the person’s answers to be consistent, which is called test-retest reliability. For example, let’s say the person takes the MMPI on Tuesday and then the same test on Friday. Unless something miraculous or tragic happened over the two days in between tests, the scores on the MMPI should be nearly identical to one another. What does identical mean? The score at test and the score at retest are correlated with one another. If the test is reliable, the correlation should be very high (remember, a correlation goes from -1.00 to +1.00, and positive means as one score goes up, so does the other, so the correlation for the two tests should be high on the positive side).

Why are some disorders not included in the main body of the APA?

Additionally, some disorders were not included within the main body of the document because they did not have the scientific evidence to support their widespread clinical use, but were included in Section III under “Conditions for Further Study” to “highlight the evolution and direction of scientific advances in these areas to stimulate further research” (APA, 2013).

When was the DSM revised?

The Herculean task of revising the DSM began in 1999 when the APA embarked upon an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the DSM in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) Division of Mental Health, the World Psychiatric Association, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

When was the DSM 5 published?

3.2.2.1. A brief history of the DSM. The DSM-5 was published in 2013 and took the place of the DSM IV-TR (TR means Text Revision; published in 2000), but the history of the DSM goes back to 1944 when the American Psychiatric Association published a predecessor of the DSM which was a “statistical classification of institutionalized mental patients” and “…was designed to improve communication about the types of patients cared for in these hospitals” (APA, 2013, p. 6). The DSM evolved through four major editions after World War II into a diagnostic classification system to be used psychiatrists and physicians, but also other mental health professionals. The Herculean task of revising the DSM began in 1999 when the APA embarked upon an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the DSM in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) Division of Mental Health, the World Psychiatric Association, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). This collaboration resulted in the publication of a monograph in 2002 called A Research Agenda for DSM-V. From 2003 to 2008, the APA, WHO, NIMH, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) convened 13 international DSM-5 research planning conferences “to review the world literature in specific diagnostic areas to prepare for revisions in developing both DSM-5 and the International Classification of Disease, 11th Revision (ICD-11)” (APA, 2013).

What are the two types of observation?

3.1.3.1. Observation. In Section 1.5.2.1 we talked about two types of observation – naturalistic, or observing the person or animal in their environment, and laboratory, or observing the organism in a more controlled or artificial setting where the experimenter can use sophisticated equipment and videotape the session to examine it at a later time. One-way mirrors can also be used. A limitation of this method is that the process of recording a behavior causes the behavior to change, called reactivity. Have you ever noticed someone staring at you while you sat and ate your lunch? If you have, what did you do? Did you change your behavior? Did you become self-conscious? Likely yes, and this is an example of reactivity. Another issue is that the behavior made in one situation may not be made in other situations, such as your significant other only acting out at the football game and not at home. This form of validity is called cross-sectional validity. We also need our raters to observe and record behavior in the same way or to have high inter-rater reliability.

What is predictive validity?

Predictive validity is when a tool accurately predicts what will happen in the future. Let’s say we want to tell if a high school student will do well in college. We might create a national exam to test needed skills and call it something like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). We would have high school students take it by their senior year and then wait until they are in college for a few years and see how they are doing. If they did well on the SAT, we would expect that at that point, they should be doing well in college. If so, then the SAT accurately predicts college success. The same would be true of a test such as the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and its ability to predict graduate school performance.

How does a mental health professional assess a client?

For a mental health professional to be able to effectively help treat a client and know that the treatment selected worked (or is working), he/she first must engage in the clinical assessment of the client, or collecting information and drawing conclusions through the use of observation, psychological tests, neurological tests, and interviews to determine the person’s problem and the presenting symptoms. This collection of information involves learning about the client’s skills, abilities, personality characteristics, cognitive and emotional functioning, the social context in terms of environmental stressors that are faced, and cultural factors particular to them such as their language or ethnicity. Clinical assessment is not just conducted at the beginning of the process of seeking help but throughout the process. Why is that?

What should providers use to ensure that important information is obtained?

To ensure that important information is obtained, providers should use standardized screening and assessment instruments and interview protocols, some of which have been studied for their sensitivity, validity, and accuracy in identifying problems with women.

What is the cutoff point for CAGE?

CAGE (Ewing 1984) asks about lifetime alcohol or drug consumption (see Figure 4-1). Each “yes” response receives 1 point, and the cutoff point (the score that makes the test results positive) is either 1 or 2. Two “yes” answers results in a very small false-positive rate and the clinician will be less likely to identify clients as potentially having a substance use disorder when they do not. However, the higher cutoff of 2 points decreases the sensitivity of CAGE for women—that is, increases the likelihood that some women who are at risk for a substance problem will receive a negative screening score (i.e., it increases the false-negative rate). Note: It is recommended that a cutoff score of 1 be employed in screening for women. This measure has also been translated and tested for Hispanic/Latina populations.

How does acculturation affect screening and assessment?

Acculturation level may affect screening and assessment results. The counselor may need to replace standard screening and assessment approaches with an in-depth discussion with the client and perhaps family members to understand substance use from the client's personal and cultural points of view. The migration experience needs to be assessed; some immigrants may have experienced trauma in their countries of origin and will need a sensitive trauma assessment.

What is the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test?

The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT; Babor and Grant 1989) is a widely used screening tool that is reproduced with guidelines and scoring instructions in TIP 26 Substance Abuse Among Older Adults(CSAT 1998d). The AUDIT is effective in identifying heavy drinking among nonpregnant women (Bradley et al. 1998c). It consists of 10 questions that were highly correlated with hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption. This instrument can be given as a self-administered test, or the questions can be read aloud. The AUDIT takes about 2 minutes to administer. Note: Question 3, concerning binge drinking, should be revised for women to refer to having 4 (not 6) or more drinks on one occasion.

What is the purpose of screening?

The purpose of screening is to determine whether a woman needs assessment. The purpose of assessment is to gather the detailed information needed for a treatment plan that meets the individual needs of the woman. Many standardized instruments and interview protocols are available to help counselors perform appropriate screening and assessment for women.

What is the assessment section?

The assessment section includes general principles for assessing women, the scope and structure of assessment interviews, and selected instruments. Finally, other considerations that apply to screening and assessment are discussed, including women's strengths, coping styles, and spirituality.

How to screen for substance use disorder?

Screening for substance use disorders is conducted by an interview or by giving a short written questionnaire. While selection of the instrument may be based on various factors, including cost and administration time (Thornberry et al. 2002), the decision to use an interview versus a self-administered screening tool should also be based upon the comfort level of the counselor or healthcare professional (Arborelius and Thakker 1995; Duszynski et al. 1995; Gale et al. 1998; Thornberry et al. 2002). If the healthcare staff communicates discomfort, women may become wary of disclosing their full use of substances (Aquilino 1994; see also Center for Substance Abuse Prevention [CSAP] 1993).

What is the purpose of the present study?

The aim of the present study is to examine the type of knowledge about the intervention process that may be produced by quantitative and qualitative data and discuss how these sources best can be applied in mixed methods designs. It is hence not a study of different forms of mixed methods designs (for such literature see Nastasi et al., 2007; Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009; Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011) but instead an assessment of the properties and potential roles of specific data sources in mixed methods OI evaluation. We employ a sequential mixed methods analysis to identify a set of factors in the quantitative data that function as an analytical framework with which we comparatively analyze the qualitative data. This approach will help us accentuate what knowledge about the intervention each data collection methods may provide, and allows us to discuss differences and similarities.

How many items are in the process questionnaire?

The process questionnaire contained 22 items based on the IPM questionnaire but tailored to the specific context as recommended by Randall et al. (2009). Response options were five point Likert-type scales ranging from “strongly disagree (1)” to “strongly agree (5).” A list of the process items can be found in Table ​Table11.

How was the OI implemented?

The OI was implemented in a participatory fashion where activities were adapted to suit the participating employees and managers. The researchers randomized the two Regions into an initial intervention group (Region 1) and a waitlist control group (Region 2) that would implement an adapted version, based on experiences from the initial OI in Region 1. In both regions the OI focused on addressing current work environment challenges as well as improving the systems for managing the long term developments of the working conditions. The key intervention components comprised an interview and questionnaire based assessment of working conditions, a detailed evaluation of health and safety practices, a prioritization workshop, and a daylong action planning workshop. In addition, ongoing steering committee meetings were held to monitor progress of activities and make decisions regarding the OI. A detailed presentation of the intervention can be found in Nielsen et al. (2013).

How is qualitative process evaluation used?

Qualitative process evaluation has often been used to explain puzzling results from quantitative effect evaluation. For instance, in Aust et al. (2010), the intervention group’s working conditions deteriorated compared to the control group. Interviews indicated this deterioration was likely caused by disappointment that the OI did not deliver the expected improvements in working conditions. Nielsen et al. (2006)demonstrated how compensatory rivalry caused one control group to improve whereas unpopular concurrent changes caused the intervention to fail in one intervention group. Greasley and Edwards (2015)used extensive qualitative interviews pre- and post-intervention to assess managerial commitment and its relation to intervention success. Studies such as these demonstrate the usefulness of qualitative methods to explain unexpected effects and advance our understanding of intervention mechanisms.

What is qualitative evaluation?

The other approach, qualitative evaluation, is based on collecting and analyzing data of a very different nature. Interviews, focus groups, logbooks observations, field notes, documents, photographs, video and audio, are all valid sources, though semi-structured interviews seems to be the conventional method used in numerous studies (Mikkelsen and Saksvik, 1998; Nielsen et al., 2006, 2007; Aust et al., 2010; Biron et al., 2010; Greasley and Edwards, 2015). The semi-structured interview, being based on a prefixed interview guide with the possibility of additional follow-up questions (Kvale, 2007) allows the researcher to cover both contextual factors and intervention implementation. Other methods of choice include logbooks of activities (Gilbert-Ouimet et al., 2011; Hasson et al., 2012), consultants’ written reports of activities (Aust et al., 2010), electronic communication (Biron et al., 2010) and workplace observations supplemented with field notes or unstructured interviews (Mikkelsen and Saksvik, 1998).

How to measure perceptions of intervention?

A commonly used way to quantify perceptions of intervention processes is the development and use of process evaluation scales (Havermans et al., 2016). Although generic scales to measure, for instance, managerial conduct and leadership (Carless et al., 2000) exist, the quantitative process evaluation approach focuses on developing scales to measure managerial attitudes and actions related directly to the intervention in question. Established intervention measures include the Intervention Process Measure (IPM; Randall et al., 2009) and the Healthy Change Process Inventory (Tvedt et al., 2009). Other approaches include using items to quantitatively assess certain key aspects of the intervention such as employees’ participation in activities (Füllemann et al., 2015), perceived legitimacy of a change program (Biron et al., 2010), stakeholder support (Sørensen and Holman, 2014) or degree of implementation (Eklöf and Hagberg, 2006; Hasson et al., 2014). A review of the process variables used in organizational stress management intervention evaluation showed a substantial heterogeneity in the level of measurement and the constructs that are assessed (Havermans et al., 2016).

Where is the National Research Centre for the Working Environment?

1The National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark

What Are SMART Goals?

In order to easily measure a goal, you should start with SMART goal setting. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. They help set clear intentions, so you can continue staying on course with long term goals.

How to achieve your goals?

The best way to accomplish your goals and advance your career is to set objectives for each goal. Remember, objectives are the specific tasks that help you create a plan to achieve each goal. Setting the proper objectives can help you get a raise, a promotion, and show a company why you deserve advancement in your career.

Why is it important to have strategic objectives?

Strategically planned objectives are powerful. As ambitious as your goals are , well-thought-out objectives can help you stay focused and accomplish anything. In addition to lofty goals, you should set higher-standard objectives. Growth is the goal, and that requires a bigger vision.

Why is it important to have a due date?

Having a due date helps your team set micro goals and milestones towards measurable goals. That way, you can plan the workload throughout your days, weeks, and months to ensure that your team won’t be racing against the clock.

What is the difference between objectives and goals?

Don’t confuse an objective for a goal—objectives are the steps, and goals are the prize. Be strategic with the objectives you create to help you accomplish your goals.

How do goals need to be measurable?

Goals need to be measurable in a way where you can present tangible, concrete evidence. You should be able to identify what you will experience when you reach that goal.

What happens when you set ambitious goals?

If you accomplish every goal that you set, your goals aren’t lofty enough. The path to growth and advancing in your career happens when you set ambitious goals. You should look at your goals and have a slight fear of how high they are.

What does Rowell do for students?

Rowell’s students help school counselors formulate questions, do the research, test whether interventions are working and, if not, determine what may work instead. Rowell believes action research also could help underfunded, overburdened community mental health settings.

Why do counselors resist research?

Additional reasons for resistance are that many counselors simply do not like research or are not offered adequate training in school, West says. “If you only have one research course in school, is that really enough?” he asks.

Why are counselors worried about outcomes?

Fear of failure also comes into play, West says. Some counselors are worried that outcomes research will show that what they’ve been doing all along isn’t working. For these counselors, engaging in evidence-based practice may be akin to “slitting (their own) throat and possibly losing their job,” he says.

What is the most reliable predictor of the success of therapy?

Murphy points to studies showing the client’s perception of the client-therapist relationship as the most reliable predictor of the success of therapy. So Murphy wants to know about those perceptions early and often. “It allows you to create a conversation around areas the client is concerned with,” he says. “It’s an ongoing thing. If things are going well, great. If things aren’t going well, you talk about what you can do differently.”

How long should a Murphy session last?

This introduction, he says, should last about five minutes.

How many interventions are there in the SAMHSA?

At this writing, SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices ( nrepp.samhsa.gov) included 137 interventions. Plug in the word “gestalt” in SAMHSA’S search engine, and nothing comes up. Insert “existential” and, again, nothing appears. Insert “cognitive behavioral,” however, and 19 interventions appear.

Does Lonnie Rowell have evidence based counseling?

Measuring counselor success. Lonnie Rowell knows all about the benefits of evidence-based counseling practice, a subject that has consumed much of his life for the past 10 years. Not everyone, however, is quite so enthusiastic. “I was told by a counselor educator yesterday that she didn’t want anybody to look too closely at what she does,” says ...

What are the Types Of Measurable Objectives?

Measurable Objectives vary per department such as product development, marketing, and HR. To reach an overall company goal, every department has to create their own objectives for their business processes.

What is a sales team without a measurable objective?

2. Marketing and sales objectives. A sales and marketing team without a measurable objective is like a boat without a paddle. Without a way to control the boat, it floats without direction.

What Are Goals and Objectives?

A goal is an intended outcome that you want to achieve while objectives help your team understand what needs to be done in order to achieve the intended outcome.

What do you need to do once you have laid out the objectives?

Once you’ve laid out the objectives – you need to figure out an action plan to tackle them.

Is setting measurable objectives going to help your company?

But simply setting measurable objectives isn’t going to help your company!

Patient Characteristics

Program–Level Characteristics

• Program–level characteristics (panel II in figure 1) are general factors related to the program’s organization and structure, policies, services, treatment orientation, social environment, and readiness for organizational change. Relevant organizational or structural variables include ownership, physical design features (e.g., number of buildings),...

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Provider Characteristics

Therapeutic Alliance

Treatment Provided/Treatment Involvement

Proximal Outcomes

Ultimate Outcomes

Table 1.—Measures of General Program–Level Characteristics

Table 2.—Measures of Treatment Orientation

Treatment Provided/Patient Involvement in Treatment