Supplemental Learning
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Transcript
0:00 Hello and welcome to our self-serve training modules. My name is Mona Barman and I'm a clinical psychologist and the clinical implementation lead here at Blueprint.
0:09 Previously we discussed what measurement-based care is and its benefits and today we're going to dive into implementing measurement-based care in your practice starting with step one, collecting the assessment data.
0:23 Now in the previous training I shared this model, the Collect, Share, and Act model of measurement. We're going to focus on that.
0:32 Collect piece, which is going to be how do we gather information about our client's symptoms using assessments. The first step in Collect is selecting the appropriate assessments.
0:44 I love the phrase measure what you treasure. Think about what are your client's treatment goals and what is it over treatment that you want to see change and then selecting the relevant assessment measures based on that information.
1:01 For some clients, you know, you might want to see symptoms reduce. Over time, so you might select like a PHQ 9 for depression or a GAD 7 for anxiety.
1:11 For other clients, you might be working on increasing their skills, for example of acceptance or mindfulness. So, really selecting the assessment measure that's most relevant.
1:21 And also keeping the assessments personalized and brief. We recommend no more than three assessments at a time. Three, if they're brief and short, if they tend to be on a little bit on the longer side, I would recommend no more than one or two at a time.
1:37 Again, we don't want to overwhelm our clients. And it's better to measure a few things over time versus everything all the time.
1:46 And the reason for that is, is if you are giving out multiple assessment measures, you as a clinician are going to have a lot of data to sort through.
1:55 And it's going to be hard to make sense and focus in. But also for your clients, it's going to begin to feel overwhelming week after week.
2:03 And oftentimes this leads to client disengagement. So in terms of selecting assessments in blueprint, I'm going to go ahead. I have some screenshots here of how to do it.
2:17 And what I'm going to do is hop into our blueprint demo account. And I'm going to select a demo client.
2:22 So I've selected here, John Apple seed as you can. See these are demo client. This is all fake patient data.
2:30 And if I wanted to assign certain assessments, what I would do is go to the assessments tab. And here's where I can see the list of current assessments that John has been assigned on a recurring basis.
2:42 If I wanted to delete an assessment, I can click on the X and that assessment will go away. If I wanted to find a new assessment, I can click on assign assessments to John.
2:53 And what you'll see here is a long list of assessments. Blueprint has over a- hundreds of assessments, and so my recommendation to find the most appropriate assessment is to search by the topic that you're looking for.
3:06 For example, if I were working with John on anger and reducing anger symptoms, I can type in anger and see what assessments- blueprint has related to anger.
3:17 I can do the same when it comes to mindfulness, for example, or I can search for quality of life. I can search for couples satisfaction, and you'll see the ones that we have.
3:30 Related to couples satisfaction. So again, the best way to do this is to search by the topic. And once you've done that, so let's just go with mindfulness, I can add the assessment by clicking this plus button and hit assign one assessment to John.
3:47 And now you'll see that assessment pop up in the list of assessments that has been assigned. After you've selected which assessment you're going to give, it's important to explain the rationale.
4:02 It's important. It's important to talk to your clients about the assessments you've chosen, why you selected those particular assessments, and how they'll be used in therapy.
4:12 So I would go over the assessment itself and talk to them about what it measures, why it's used in therapy, and how it's used in therapy.
4:19 I chose it. And also go over each question to understand that they understand what each question is asking. This will allow them to answer the assessments in the most accurate way.
4:31 It's also important to ensure that clients feel like the selected assessments are relevant to them and their symptoms and experiences.
4:40 So if a client says to you, you know, that assessment just doesn't seem like it applies to me. That's okay.
4:46 What I would recommend then is see, are there other assessments that perhaps measure the same construct? But feel more relatable to your client.
4:54 For example, if you're seeing a client with anxiety and you give out the, let's say, GAD 7 for anxiety, a commonly used measure, and they tell you, you know, this just feels too vague, not applicable.
5:05 You can try, for example, the pen. State worry questionnaire and see if that's a little more specific and applicable for your client.
5:13 The next thing that you want to do is consider the frequency of assessment delivery. It's important to assign assessments at a frequency that's clinically appropriate and that your clients are amenable to.
5:28 And the way that you can determine how often to give assessments and what to consider, one would be the assessment itself will sometimes indicate how often it should be administered.
5:38 So things like the PH, Q9 and GAD7 for example, start off with instructions that say, in the past two weeks, how often have you been experiencing?
5:47 And so that kind of gives you an indication that maybe these should be given every two weeks. You can also use a taper method for clients that you're seeing.
6:00 So for example, for some clients, let's say you're seeing them for six months, a year, you might want to start out by giving their assessments weekly, especially in that first month or two.
6:12 There is research to support that if change is happening in therapy, a lot of it happens in that first month.
6:18 And then you may begin to taper off. So maybe after that you're doing every other week or perhaps once a month, again, using your clinical judgment.
6:28 Lastly, you want to check in with your clients about how they feel, about how often they're completing these assessments. And if it feels all right for them, we don't want to overwhelm our clients.
6:40 So again, it's important to talk to them about how they feel and if they feel like it's too much. Seeing if you can reduce the frequency and come to a compromise that makes clinical sense.
6:51 And I know I talked about where to find assessments and how to assign assessments in Blueprint. I'm going to hop right back into our Blueprint portal with our demo client to show you how you can change the frequency of assessments at any time.
7:07 So when you're in your client portal, in your clinician portal, excuse me, and you're under the client's name, you can click on assessments where you see the list.
7:20 So in this case, the PHQ-9 is going out every two weeks. The Friedburg mindfulness inventory is going out weekly. And the PTSD checklist is going out weekly as well.
7:31 If I wanted to change any. One of these frequencies, I can click on the box and choose how often I would like for that assessment to go out.
7:39 This ranges from one time all the way to yearly, and you can change this at any time. And each assessment can have its own frequency.
7:47 So maybe the PHQ-9 is something you're doing every four weeks and the others you're doing weekly. So just a review in terms of how to collect assessment data.
8:04 You want to select the appropriate assessment measures that are relevant to your clients. Remember to keep it brief and personalized.
8:12 You want to review those assessments with your clients, explaining to them the rationale for its use and ensuring that the client feels it's relevant to them.
8:21 And lastly, you want to ensure the frequency of assessment administration is clinically appropriate and amenable to your client. In the next training module, we'll talk about implementing measurement-based care, which is going to be sharing the results.
8:37 With your clients.