Abstract
Within the context of child mental health across the UK, a practice research network, Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC), has been formed and is committed to collating and using outcome data to inform clinical and service decision making . CORC began with 4 subscribing organizations in 2004 and has grown to approximately 65 in 2015. Based on this experience, learning about how such data are to be used safely and effectively to support performance management and service improvement are discussed. One challenge is that any attempt to measure the “impact” of a service using a given “outcome” is complex. Within psychotherapy in general, and in work with children and families where there are multiple perspectives in particular, this question raises a number of dilemmas. For some professionals, the whole notion of quantitatively measuring such human qualities is questioned. Despite these challenges, CORC has been pioneering in supporting its members to collect and cautiously make use of information with a particular emphasis on outcomes from the service user perspective. Such challenges may be recognized in other countries as well, and CORC aims to share learning to help mitigate these barriers.
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Jacob, J., Napoleone, E., Zamperoni, V., Levy, L., Barnard, M., Wolpert, M. (2017). How Can Outcome Data Inform Change? Experiences from the Child Mental Health Context in Great Britain, Including Barriers and Facilitators to the Collection and Use of Data. In: Tilden, T., Wampold, B. (eds) Routine Outcome Monitoring in Couple and Family Therapy. European Family Therapy Association Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50675-3_15
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