Clinicians who use therapeutic approaches that focus on patients’ perceptions, such as CBT, may be more likely to seek patient feedback and use patient reported outcome measures (PROMs).
Patient reported outcome measures can be seen as a chore or distraction from therapy, but there is some good evidence that they benefit both patients and services. Julian Edbrooke-Childs at University College London and colleagues emailed a survey to CAMHs clinicians to determine their use and attitudes towards PROMs, receiving 109 replies.
The survey also recorded their therapeutic approaches, finding that those favouring CBT or humanistic practices were significantly more likely to also use PROMs. Positive attitudes and confidence in using the measures were also associated with higher use.
Patient and parent attitudes, as well as comorbidity or case complexity, are also all known to impact on use. The authors propose that the effective use of technology and training may increase use of PROMs in CAMHS.
Edbrooke-Childs, J., Barry, D., Rodriguez, I. M., Papageorgiou, D., Wolpert, M. and Schulz, J. (2017), Patient reported outcome measures in child and adolescent mental health services: associations between clinician demographic characteristics, attitudes and efficacy. Child Adolesc Ment Health, 22: 36–41. doi:10.1111/camh.12189
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