A method and scale to evaluate the outcome of family treatment are described. The method and scale have been used successfully to document changes in the lives of families served by a family service agency. The cost of development and implementation of the methodology was modest; the reasons for this are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BallS. (1981). Outcomes, the size of impact, an program evaluation. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 9, 71–86.
2.
BeckD. F. (1988). Counselor characteristics: How they affect outcomes.Milwaukee: Family Service America
3.
BeckD. F., & JonesM. A. (1973). Progress on family problems: A nationwide study of clients' and counselors' views on family agency services.New York: Family Service Association of America.
4.
BerginA. E., & LambertM. J. (1978). The evaluation of therapeutic outcomes. In GarfieldS. L., & BerginA. E. (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change: An empirical analysis (2nd ed.) (pp. 139–190). New York: John Wiley.
5.
CiarloJ. A., & ReihmanJ. (1977). The Denver Community Mental Health Questionnaire: Development of a multidimensional program evaluation instrument. In CourseyR.SpectorG.MurrelS., & HuntB. (Eds.), Program evaluation for mental health: Methods, strategies, and participants.New York: Grune & Stratton.
6.
CookT. D., & CampbellD. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis issues for field settings.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
7.
CromwellR.OlsonD., & FournierD. (1976). Diagnosis and evaluation in marital and family counseling. In OlsonD. H. L. (Ed.), Treating relationships.Lake Mills, IA: Graphic.
8.
DerogatisL. R. (1977). Administration, scoring and procedures manual-1 for the revised version.Baltimore: Clinical Psychometrics Research.
9.
EllsworthR. B. (1975). Consumer feedback in measuring the effectiveness of mental health programs. In GuttentagM., & StrueningE. S. (Eds.), Handbook of evaluation research: Vol. 2.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
10.
GeismarL. L. (1980). Family and community functioning.Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
11.
GurmanA. S. (1977). The patient's perception of the therapeutic relationship. In GurmanA. S., & RazinA. (Eds.), Effective psychotherapy: A handbook of research (pp. 503–543). New York: Pergamon.
12.
GurmanA. S., & KniskernD. P. (1981). Family therapy outcome research. In GurmanA., & KniskernD. (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy.New York: Brunner/Mazel.
13.
GurmanA. S.KniskernD. P., & PinsofW. M. (1986). Research on the process and outcome of marital and family therapy. In GarfieldS. L., & BerginA. E. (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change.New York: John Wiley.
14.
HazelriggM. D.CooperH. M., & BorduinC. M. (1987). Evaluating the effectiveness of family therapies: An integrative review and analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 428–443.
15.
KaneR. S.KaneR. L., & ArnoldS. (1985). Measuring social functioning in mental health studies: Concepts and instruments (DHHS Publ. No. (ADM) 85–1384). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
16.
KiresukT. J., & ShermanR. E. (1968). Goal attainment scaling: A general method for evaluating comprehensive community mental health programs. Community Mental Health Journal, 4, 443–453.
17.
LambertM. J.ShapiroD. A., & BerginA. E. (1986). Evaluation of therapeutic outcomes. In GarfieldS. L., & BerginA. E. (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley.
18.
LebowJ. (1981). Issues in the assessment of outcome in family therapy. Family Process, 20, 167–188.
19.
MintzJ. (1977). The role of the therapist in assessing psychotherapy outcome. In GurmanA. S., & RazinA. (Eds.), Effective psychotherapy: A handbook of research.New York: Petgamon.
20.
SacksJ. G.BradleyP. M., & BeckD. F. (1970). Clients' progress within five interviews.New York: Family Service Association of America.
21.
SchachtT. E., & StruppH. H. (1984, June). Psychotherapy outcome: Individualized is nice, but intelligible is beautiful. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.
22.
TaynorJ. (1978). The Personal Feelings Booklet: A measure of treatment outcome. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 8(14), Ms. 1647.
23.
TaynorJ. (1979). The Community Integration Scale: A measure of treatment outcome in the community. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 9, Ms. 1971.
24.
TaynorJ.PerryJ., & FrederickP. (1976). A brief program to upgrade the skills of community caregivers. Community Mental Health Journal, 12, 13–19.
25.
TaynorJ., & SchwartzJ. (1979). Assessing treatment outcome in community mental health centers. Workshop IV. Paper presented at the Evaluation Research Society, Third Annual Meeting, Minneapolis.
26.
TaynorJ., & SchwartzJ. (1986). Evaluation overview: A seven-year study. Report to the Medical Director of Greene Memorial Hospital Mental Health Unit, Xenia, Ohio.
27.
WynneL. C. (1984, October). Definable problems in family therapy efficacy research. Paper presented at the NIMH Conference on the State of the Art in Family Therapy Research, Rockville, MD.
