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Treatment outcome for a maltreated population: benefits, procedural decisions, and challenges
S Gothard1, B Ryan, T Heinrich
1Trauma Counseling Program, San Diego Children's Hospital & Health Center, CA 92123-4282, USA.
Objective:
To review the benefits, challenges, and procedural decisions to consider when implementing and managing a treatment outcome program for a maltreated population.
Method:
We reviewed the reasons to implement a treatment outcome program, decisions regarding procedures, and challenges likely to be encountered based on literature in the field and the authors' 6 years of experience in developing and maintaining an outcome program at a center specializing in the treatment of maltreated children.
Results:
The development of an outcome programs requires careful measurement selection, early and ongoing staff-involvement, support from higher management, a well-developed data base and client tracking system, a coordinator and support staff, clinical utility, planning for fiscal impact, and flexibility to contend with challenges.
Conclusions:
Based on our experience, the plethora of clinically rich and administratively useful information derived from an outcome program far outweighs the challenges and costs of establishing and maintaining an outcome program.