Collecting Data
From the moment you begin working within a new project, age group or population we want to support you to detail your work. You can find a link to Louise Combes’ webinar, explaining how to fill in the case study template HERE
Measuring Change as a Best Practice Therapist
Asking people at the start and end of therapy the same questions can show change. This is called outcome data and is how funders justify dramatherapy.
As therapists we all measure the ebb and flow of clients’ engagement within sessions in order to plan our clients’ journey through therapy. There are a number of outcome measures we can use to do this and these can be client specific. They can be administrated by the therapist or they can be self-reported. THE CAT SRS is an outcome measure which is scored by the therapist and has been developed for all Arts Therapies by Dr Simon Hackett. If you would like to use this, please ask permission fromSimon.Hackett@CNTW.nhs.uk
It can be helpful if attending staff also complete the CAT separately so that you can check your inter-reliability score. Information on interrelated reliability and the ‘Leeds reliable change indicator can be found here: https://dclinpsych.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2018/09/Manual-for-Leeds-RCI-CSC-calculators.pdf. The idea is that all measurement is unreliable to some extent and that a difference between two scores from an individual could be due to the measurement error rather than any other reason in assessing the outcome of therapy.
Measuring Change to collect Meaningful Outcome Data
There are two rules for outcome data:
- If your outcome data collection is to be taken seriously it needs to be independent of you – so collect the changes that others notice: staff, the service user and/or their families is all useful.
- The data needs to be validated - whilst it tempting to invent outcomes that specifically deal with the primary reason for you being employed, it is much better to collect data in a way that has been previously tested and other professions consider reliable.
A good example is https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/strengths-and-difficulties-questionnaire/ - this has been used for many years across schools and is well designed to be completed independently by clients, staff and parents. However, members are telling us it is out of date and it is only suitable for school use.
New Recommended Outcome Measures
We currently recommend using the EQ-5D as a recent and well researched, free to use outcome measurement.
Please let us know your experience of using this. If you would like to recommend alternatives, please review this document from the AHP framework and get in touch with us: https://www.rcslt.org/-/media/docs/selecting-outcome-measures.pdf?la=en&hash=12ECB2CFDA0B2EFB1979E592A383D24E792AB9DD
We welcome feedback - please email research@badth.org.uk if you have any comments or questions.