Our Work

Collect, Share, Act: A transtheoretical clinical model for doing measurement-based care in mental health treatment

Can Measurement-Based Care Reduce Burnout in Mental Health Clinicians?

Measurement-Based Care: Opportunities to Improve Global Mental Health Care

Leveraging Measurement-Based Care to Reduce Mental Health Treatment Disparities for Populations of Color

Data-Informed Communication: How Measurement-Based Care Can Optimize Child Psychotherapy

A Roadmap for Measurement-based Care Implementation in Intensive Outpatient Treatment Settings for Children and Adolescents

PI: Dr. Amber W. Childs

Within Yale New Haven Health System’s (YNHHS) ambulatory and psychiatry and behavioral health (PbeH) services, MBC has been identified as a key strategy within care signature to advance implementation of evidence-based practices and the ability to evaluate their impact on mental health care outcomes. Core goals include implementation and fidelity to practice of MBC within and across YNHHS PbeH five delivery networks. Secondary goals include leveraging aggregate data insights for quality improvement.

PI: Dr. Amber W. Childs

M-Select, an YNHHS Innovation Award winning digital innovation with a $150K seed investment, is a new platform designed to simplify and enhance implementation of MBC. M-select fills a much-needed gap in the MBC measurement-feedback system marketplace, with the first offering designed to meet the unique mental health needs of youth populations in non-psychiatric settings. With M-Select, providers will be able to enhance care quality, satisfy key accreditation requirements, and generate new revenue potential through MBC reimbursement. M-Select is in an active build stage and collaborators are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Childs.

PI: Dr. Elizabeth Connors

Funding: National Institute of Mental Health K08MH116119

Wondering how to implement MBC in school-based mental health (SMH) treatment services? So are we! The purpose of this study is to identify which implementation strategies are most important and feasible for implementing MBC in the school context. It is especially important to better understand MBC implementation in schools which more “usual care” children’s mental health treatment services are delivered than any other service sector, including outpatient clinics. A national sample of 52 SMH stakeholders (i.e., clinicians, clinical supervisors, and researchers) completed two rounds of a modified Delphi survey to rate and provide feedback on implementation strategies for MBC in schools. Top-rated strategies and definitions based on stakeholder consensus are available here. These strategies are currently being pilot tested with SMH clinicians in Connecticut school districts in the FOCUSS study.

PI: Dr. Elizabeth Connors

Funding: National Institute of Mental Health K08MH116119

Schools and school-based mental health clinicians face numerous practical challenges to integrating MBC into mental health early intervention (Tier 2) and treatment (Tier 3) services and supports for students. FOCUSS is a Hybrid Type 3 implementation-effectiveness pilot trial of MBC implementation in schools that applies the most promising implementation strategies identified in our prior work and augments and tailors those strategies to school district-specific challenges, resources and contextual factors. Although the primary goal of FOCUSS is to improve SMH clinician adoption and implementation of MBC with students served throughout the school year, the project team is also observing effects of MBC implementation on student psychosocial outcomes.

PIs: Drs. Elizabeth Connors and Prerna Arora

Collaborators: Drs. Sandra Resnick and Amber Childs

Funding: National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH134195)

Despite high rates of need, racial and ethnic minority (REM) youth are significantly more likely to prematurely dropout of mental health services as compared to their White peers. This is due in part to poor therapeutic alliance and concerns about treatment relevance and acceptability. Existing engagement interventions are limited, with few addressing treatment retention for REM youth at risk for depression and suicide. STAY is a theoretically-driven, culturally-tailored MBC approach. STAY targets therapeutic alliance and treatment relevance and acceptability, concerns which are particularly relevant to REM youth and their caregivers, to improve treatment retention, depression symptoms and suicide outcomes. This study involves equity- and human-centered design with REM youth, their caregivers and clinicians to refine STAY prior to a randomized pilot trial in community child guidance clinics in Connecticut and New York. STAY is a partnership between Yale University and Teachers College Columbia University.

Director: Dr. Sandra Resnick

Associate Director: Dr. Jessica Barber

Due to the evidence supporting the efficacy of MBC in mental health care, in 2016 VA launched the Initiative to implement MBC through all of VA mental health via a series of phased rollouts. The MBC in MH Initiative, based in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP), partners with other OMHSP leadership, other VHA offices, and the field to provide coordination and standardization of in MBC across VA. The Initiative supports the field in implementing MBC by providing education, consultation, and tracking tools.