The Role of Measurement Based Care in Client Engagement

Measurement-based care is an approach to delivering clinical services that focuses on tracking clients’ treatment progress. This is accomplished by routinely administering and reviewing scores on outcome measures such as the CQs (e.g., PHQ-9, GAD-7). There is strong research demonstrating that engaging in measurement-based care improves treatment outcomes, including within the SonderMind group. Moreover, reviewing clients’ treatment progress has been found to reduce client dropout by 20% (de Jong et al., 2021). However, clients’ engagement in measurement-based care has to start before therapy begins. Recently, within the SonderMind group we have found that clients who complete the questionnaires before therapy begins are more likely to reach 3rd session within 30 days (or ever). If you are a numbers person, those who completed the baseline measures are 5.1% more likely to reach 3rd session (62.1% vs 57.0%). Here are some tips for your practice:

1. Check your new client’s questionnaire completion within 48 hours of your first session
2. Suggest the benefits of monitoring treatment progress – e.g., better results - as part of early conversations with your client.
3. Learn more about how best to use this feedback throughout treatment.