Routine outcome measurement in public mental health: results of a clinician survey

Abstract

This paper explores the attitudes of mental health workers in one public mental health service towards the implementation and use of routine outcome measurement. Two years after their introduction into routine clinical practice, there were equal numbers of positive and negative observations from clinicians about the clinical value of the clinician-rated outcome measures, while more positive observations were made about value of the consumer-rated outcome measure. The most frequent observation from clinicians in relation to making outcome measures more useful to them in clinical practice was that more training, particularly refresher training, is needed. In addition, clinicians indicated that more sophisticated support which assists them to understand the meaning and possible use of outcome measure ratings is required.