Workshop 6
Outcome Management: Simple Ways to Improve Your Effectiveness and Accountability
No single intervention or counseling model has proven to be better than the others when it comes to helping people change. Regardless of one’s model, research has shown that practitioners can more than double their effectiveness through outcome management—the regular and systematic use of client feedback. This is “revolutionary” because no single therapeutic strategy has demonstrated this strong of an impact on outcomes in the history of the helping professions. Outcome-informed practice involves the use of quick and reliable paper-and-pencil measures that inform practitioners of clients’ perceptions of outcomes and of the “goodness of fit” between clients, practitioners, and services. As simple as it sounds, this strategy has yielded remarkable results in real world practice settings. Outcome management not only provides practitioners and agencies with valuable accountability and evaluation data, but improves outcomes “one client at a time” by igniting the most potent factor of all in the change process – client participation and involvement. By obtaining real time, on-the-spot feedback from clients regarding the usefulness of services, practitioners are able to repair fractures in the client-practitioner relationship and to adjust the services to the client instead of adjusting clients to the services. Two simple measures for assessing the client’s perceptions of outcomes and the alliance will be described and illustrated. This workshop provides the practical nuts and bolts of outcome management in the real world through the use of demonstration and numerous case examples.
Workshop Agenda
What is Outcome-Informed Practice?
Research on “What Works” to Help People Change
Building Cooperative, Client-Driven Relationships
Establishing a “Feedback Culture”
Assessing Outcomes from the Client’s Perspective
Assessing “Goodness of Fit” and Usefulness of Services
Adjusting Services to Fit Clients vs. Adjusting Clients to Fit Services
Applying the Client’s Ideas, Resources, and Strengths toward Solutions
Empowering Desired Outcomes and Keeping the Ball Rolling
Troubleshooting: Getting Unstuck When Things Don’t Go as Planned
CEU/Learning Objectives
Participants will learn how to:
Distinguish between fact and fiction when it comes to claims about “evidenced-based practices” and the superiority of one model over another
Build cooperative, change-focused relationships with a wide variety of clients including so-called reluctant or resistant clients
Administer two simple and reliable methods of obtaining client feedback
Adjust services to clients instead of clients to services
Use client-provided feedback in ways that enhance effectiveness and honor the client’s essential contributions to the change process