ABSTRACT
Regardless of clinicians’ orientation, the ability to carry out a thorough investigation of a client’s presenting problem is key to psychotherapy (e.g., Morrison, 1995). Clinicians use assessment to understand what brings the client to therapy , what types of treatment might be appropriate, and monitor whether interventions are helpful. In particular, there is a growing emphasis on the benefits of one aspect of assessment in clinical practice — ongoing evaluation of client progress in therapy or formal treatment outcome assessments (e.g., Lambert et al., 2001; Truax, 2002). Yet there are many challenges in clinical practice
to carrying out initial and ongoing assessment with all clients. For example, in a recent survey of APA-accredited graduate psychology training programs, only 56% of clinic directors indicated that formal treatment outcome assessments were routinely conducted at their facilities (Tyler, Busseri, & King, 2002). Common barriers to assessment include lack of agreement on what to measure and anxiety regarding clinician evaluation, lack of interest, and fears of additional paper work burdening clients and therapists (e.g., Tyler et al. 2002). By contrast, sites that incorporated formal outcomes assessment into clinical practice reported benefits such as improved quality of care, training implications, and research possibilities (Tyler et al., 2002; Lambert et al., 2001). Clearly, the benefits to clients and clinicians warrant a close look at how to incorporate more formal and systematic assessment of treatment outcomes into practice.
