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Effects of Routine Feedback to Clinicians on Youth Mental Health Outcomes: A Randomized Cluster Design

Effects of Routine Feedback to Clinicians on Youth Mental Health Outcomes: A Randomized Cluster Design

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01308879
Enrollment
356
Registered
2011-03-04
Start date
2004-05-31
Completion date
2009-06-30
Last updated
2011-03-04

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Mental Health Wellness 1, Psychosocial Problem

Keywords

Contextualized Feedback System (CFS), Mental health outcomes, Quality improvement, Feedback, Clinical trial

Brief summary

The purpose of this clinical trial was to test the hypothesis that clients of clinicians who were scheduled to receive weekly feedback on their clients' progress would improve faster than clients of clinicians who were not scheduled to receive weekly feedback.

Detailed description

The primary approach to improving psychosocial treatment for youths has been to implement evidence-supported treatments (ESTs) in community services. However, this approach has not produced clear cut results of effectiveness. A recently developed alternative is to improve outcomes through routine measurement and feedback to clinicians and supervisors. The investigators used a cluster randomized experiment with 28 sites affiliated with a national behavioral health organization to assess whether clients of clinicians who were scheduled to receive weekly feedback on their clients' progress would improve faster than clients of clinicians who were not scheduled to receive weekly feedback.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALContextualized Feedback Systems (CFS)tm

After clinical questionnaires are entered, an automated feedback report is available online weekly to clinicians (and supervisors) in the experimental group. The report shows current mental health status of youths, alerts, and trends over time. Reports also show some clinical data on youths' caregivers.

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
CollaboratorNIH
Leon Lowenstein Foundation Inc.
CollaboratorOTHER
Vanderbilt University
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
11 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* all youths 11-18 years old, entering treatment as usual, home-based services through the service provider. Youths' primary caregiver and clinician also participate.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Symptoms and Functioning Severity ScaleThe SFSS is completed at intake by youths and caregivers, then by youths, caregivers, and clinicians at the 1st treatment session and every other session (week) thereafter for as long as the youth is enrolled in the intervention (CFS).The SFSS is part of a battery of clinical measures (Peabody Treatment Progress Battery:PTPB) developed by the researchers. It assesses change in closely-timed repeated measurements. Parallel forms are completed by youths, caregivers, and clinicians at the end of treatment sessions. The SFSS includes 32 items that ask the respondent to rate how frequently in the last two weeks the youth experienced emotions or exhibited behaviors linked to typical mental health disorders for youths (e.g., ADHD, conduct disorder, depression).

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale-CEPI (BMSLSS-CEPI)The BMSLSS-CEPI is completed by the youth at intake, at the 2nd treatment session, and every 8 weeks thereafter for as long as the youth is enrolled in the intervention (CFS).The BMSLSS-CEPI is a revised version of the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (Seligson, Huebner, & Valois, 2003). The BMSLSS-CEPI was designed to assess global life satisfaction as well as domain specific satisfaction with family, friends, school, self and living environment. Life satisfaction may be targeted directly or indirectly with treatment and thus can be thought of as a positive, or strengths-based, indicator of treatment progress (outcome).
The Children's Hope Scale (CHS)The CHS is completed by the youth at intake and every 8 weeks thereafter for as long as the youth is enrolled in the intervention (CFS).The CHS (Snyder et al., 1997), a public domain measure used with youth in this study, assesses youth hopefulness. The measure asks youths to report on their ability to generate paths toward goals and persevere toward those goals. Youth hopefulness is conceptually an important factor in the successful treatment of emotional or behavioral disorders, constituting an outcome that may be affected by the treatment process.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026