Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Invited Column: Evidence-Based PracticeBenchmarking the Effectiveness of Psychotherapy: Program Evaluation as a Component of Evidence-Based Practice
Section snippets
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BENCHMARKING
In the early 1990s, a community mental health center (CMHC) in Bloomington, IN, faced a dilemma not unlike the medical director in the example-a desire to provide evidence-based services that were both acceptable to and effective in their local patient population (see McFall, 1991, for discussion). The CMHC, in partnership with researchers from Indiana University, trained staff therapists in a well-supported CBT treatment manual for adults with panic disorder (Wade et al., 1998). In randomized,
BENCHMARKING AS A COMPONENT OF EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE
The benchmarking method was developed to assess generalizability of efficacy findings, and this purpose maps directly onto the question posed in our example. The medical director wonders whether the results of CBT in clinical trials can be expected to replicate in the population of poor, Spanish-speaking teens served by her clinic. How can she answer this question?
CAVEATS AND CONCLUSIONS
This column was intended to provide an introduction to benchmarking-a practical method for measuring treatment outcomes in applied settings. The description of benchmarking was necessarily brief; readers are referred to the published benchmarking articles referenced in this column for good examples of the method in action and more thorough discussion of the strengths and limitations of the design. More important, benchmarking is nonexperimental and suffers from the inference problems of all
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2021, Research in Autism Spectrum DisordersCitation Excerpt :This study was also the first community-based telehealth pilot of RUBI (autism therapeutic center), providing data on real-world implementation of the intervention. A benchmarking strategy (Weersing & Hamilton, 2005) was utilized based on findings from the original RUBI pilot (Bearss et al., 2013) as well as the clinic-to-remote center study (2018b, Bearss, Burrell et al., 2018) to determine the feasibility of RUBI when delivered via telehealth directly to participating parents. Feasibility was assessed by examining session attendance, attrition rates, and homework completion.
Evidence-Based Decision Making in Youth Mental Health Prevention
2016, American Journal of Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :Process metrics might include medications, previous services received, and history of involvement with school prevention programs; corresponding process benchmarks could visually represent expected successful practice elements (e.g., those highlighted in a hospital’s annual review report) or best process events (e.g., service plan ordering from published guidelines). Outcome metrics might include observed events or assessments with youth, families, or providers and corresponding benchmarks might present mandated progress rates, researched clinical cut off scores, or expected rates of change.19 Together, process and outcome metrics can inform actions in real time (e.g., metabolic indicators can inform use of atypical antipsychotics; occurrence of a family stressor can signal need for heightened assessment or intervention).
Parent training for 842 families experiencing disruptive child behavior across 19 Danish community sites: A benchmark effectiveness study
2023, Scandinavian Journal of PsychologyA benchmark study of a combined individual and group anorexia nervosa therapy program
2023, Nordic Journal of Psychiatry
Preparation of this column was facilitated by support from the William T. GrantFoundation, the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Institute of Mental Health(MH064503-01A1 and MH066371-01). The author thanks Teresa Treat her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article and Erin Warnick and Alissa Mohammed for assistance with manuscript preparation.
Disclosure: The author has no financial relationships to disclose.