RESULTS OF TREATMENT ONE-YEAR LATER - CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PARTIAL HOSPITALIZATION

Objective: One criticism of academicians is that they evaluate and dis seminate outcome studies based more on the value and merit of the rese arch design than on the utility of the findings for improving clinical practice. Increasing pressure on programs to evaluate the effectivene ss of behavioral health care is transitioning outcome measurement from the exclusive domain of the researcher toward the clinical/organizati onal domain. To explore the multiple applications of such clinical out come data, this article presents the results from a study of 114 patie nts completing treatment in two child and adolescent partial hospital programs. Method: Four areas define the scope of clinical outcome meas urement pertinent to partial hospitalization: changes in the patient's clinical status, changes in the patient's level of daily functioning, impact on the utilization of behavioral health services after dischar ge, and patient/family satisfaction with treatment. Using these four d omains, this study compares data assessed at admission and at 1 year p ostdischarge. Results: Analyses used paired t tests primarily to measu re change between admission and 1 year after discharge. Overall, the d ata show improvement in general functioning that remains evident up to 1 year postdischarge. Conclusions: Finding positive results in specif ic areas emphasized therapeutically-such as family functioning and use of community-based mental health resources after discharge, and the p arent's attribution of improvement to experiences in treatment-provide s justification for relating improvement to the treatment episode.