Class
Article
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Measurement feedback systems (MFS’s) are software tools that help behavioral health clinicians routinely track their clients’ symptoms and collaborate with their client to make decisions concerning treatment. Research has shown that the use of MFS’s may improve clinical decision-making and that it is correlated with greater treatment gains and lower dropout rates when compared to the use of clinicians’ judgement alone. However, there are various factors that can impede the efficacy of these tools. One of these factors is the attitudes of clinicians toward MFS’s. Clinicians have been found to hold predominantly negative attitudes towards MFS’s which poses a major obstacle to the successful implementation of a MFS. Learning why clinicians develop these attitudes would help clinic administrators provide information and training that would attenuate negative preconceptions and move towards successful implantation. One possibility is that there is a relationship between clinicians’ attitudes towards technology and their attitude toward MFS’s. This type relationship has been researched with other mental health technologies such as computer assisted therapy, and in other clinical professions where new software has been implemented, such as occupational therapy, but there has not been discrete research on this relationship with respect to MFS’s. In this study we will use data gathered from the USU Psychology Community Clinic, where a web-based MFS, OwlOutcomes, is currently being implemented, to explore the possible link between clinicians’ attitudes towards MFS and attitudes toward technology. Student clinicians will complete questionnaires at three time points and their attitudes towards technology and OwlOutcomes will be assessed. A correlational design will be used to analyze this data. This study will inform on whether attitudes toward technology are linked to attitudes toward MFS’s and will thus help administrators make necessary adjustments in the implementation of MFS’s to counter these attitudes.
Start Date
4-14-2016 12:00 PM
End Date
4-14-2016 1:15 PM
Included in
Implementing a Measurement Feedback System in a Psychology Graduate Training Clinic
Measurement feedback systems (MFS’s) are software tools that help behavioral health clinicians routinely track their clients’ symptoms and collaborate with their client to make decisions concerning treatment. Research has shown that the use of MFS’s may improve clinical decision-making and that it is correlated with greater treatment gains and lower dropout rates when compared to the use of clinicians’ judgement alone. However, there are various factors that can impede the efficacy of these tools. One of these factors is the attitudes of clinicians toward MFS’s. Clinicians have been found to hold predominantly negative attitudes towards MFS’s which poses a major obstacle to the successful implementation of a MFS. Learning why clinicians develop these attitudes would help clinic administrators provide information and training that would attenuate negative preconceptions and move towards successful implantation. One possibility is that there is a relationship between clinicians’ attitudes towards technology and their attitude toward MFS’s. This type relationship has been researched with other mental health technologies such as computer assisted therapy, and in other clinical professions where new software has been implemented, such as occupational therapy, but there has not been discrete research on this relationship with respect to MFS’s. In this study we will use data gathered from the USU Psychology Community Clinic, where a web-based MFS, OwlOutcomes, is currently being implemented, to explore the possible link between clinicians’ attitudes towards MFS and attitudes toward technology. Student clinicians will complete questionnaires at three time points and their attitudes towards technology and OwlOutcomes will be assessed. A correlational design will be used to analyze this data. This study will inform on whether attitudes toward technology are linked to attitudes toward MFS’s and will thus help administrators make necessary adjustments in the implementation of MFS’s to counter these attitudes.