New trends in assessing the outcomes of mental health interventions |
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Authors: | Graham Thornicroft Mike Slade |
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Affiliation: | King's College London, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, , Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF UK |
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Abstract: | Assessing the outcomes of interventions in mental health care is both important and challenging. The aim of this paper is to advance the field of outcomes research by proposing a taxonomy of the decisions that clinicians and researchers need to consider when evaluating outcomes. Our taxonomy has eight components, framed as decisions: Whose outcome will be considered? Which scientific stage is being investigated? What outcome domain(s) matter? What level of assessment will be used? Will clinical and/or recovery outcomes be assessed? Whose perspective will be considered? Will deficits and/or strengths be the focus? Will invariant or individualized measures be preferred? We propose a future focus on understanding what matters most to people using mental health services, and on the use of measures rated by service users as the primary approach to evaluating outcome. |
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Keywords: | Outcomes research assessment measures mental health services research |
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