In today’s world, numerous organizations compete for finite financial resources designated to address the most vital concerns facing us today. In the last several years, mental health has begun to get a small slice of that pie.
This is, no doubt, a positive development. Unfortunately, the increase in worldwide mental health issues are outpacing resources available, and the problem will only get worse in the years to come. Funds dedicated to mental health will need to be spread even thinner than they already are.
What can mental health organizations do, then? A potential solution is to increase available funding. However, increasing public funding is a political issue. As such, organizations cannot reliably wait for political will to meet demand. Plus, waiting for someone else to solve your problems rarely ever works.
One thing that organizations can do themselves is to have those limited funds be utilized as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Integrating MyOutcomes into the clinical setting can maximize the efficacy of an organization’s mental health resources. MyOutcomes pioneered the first reliable digital measures-of-treatment-progress proven to:
- Strengthen client engagement in the clinical setting
- Increase the number of successful outcomes
- Reduce early drop out
Integrating Feedback-Informed Treatment into therapeutic session enables MyOutcomes to assist the clinician and the client to mutually identify the clinical goals and see if goals have been reached. Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) is simple and feasible with a standardized Outcome Rating Scale (ORS). ROM predicts session outcomes and identifies clients, who may appear to be benefiting from treatment, but are in fact, deteriorating and are at risk for dropping out. Both dropping out and not benefitting from treatment are, needless to say, wastes of precious resources.
Counselors can use feedback elicited by MyOutcomes each session to identify if clients are struggling and can adjust therapy to better meet the clients’ therapeutic needs and goals, ensuring time spent in treatment is not time wasted.
Another strategy for increasing effectiveness and efficiency is to use group therapy. One of the main downsides, however, is that the client may not form a strong therapeutic relationship. We have known for several decades that a strong therapeutic alliance is predictive of successful outcomes. Without a strong alliance, clients may not feel engaged with therapists or a group.
Not only does MyOutcomes’ ORS integrate into group therapy as easily as it does individual therapy, but it also enables the provider to monitor the therapeutic alliance by using the Group Session Rating Scale (GSRS). Integrating a group therapy alliance measure into every group therapy session may not seem feasible, but with MyOutcomes’ software, it is really quite simple.
Is your organization getting the most out of time spent? Are you using your resources as effectively as possible? Without routine monitoring and real-time feedback, how can you know for certain? With MyOutcomes, you can gain insights and data to show if treatments are working and can be alerted when treatment is not, allowing organizations to be as efficient with its limited resources as possible.
Click here to find out.