Patient Generated Goals in Mental Health: Better Outcomes?

Researchers believe that clinical care can be improved by engaging patients and families directly in planning the care process. Engagement efforts have included asking patients/families to provide information about whether they are getting better. But what does "getting better" mean? The merits of surveys, questionnaires, or rating scales have been widely discussed. Should they be disorder-specific or global? What should the investigators do if patients have difficulty reading or understanding these instruments? Investigators in the United Kingdom have proposed a simple solution: ask the patients and families what their primary goal treatment goal is and track progress together on that goal (Goal-Based Outcomes or GBO). Although there has been some work to suggest that this is helpful, it has never been tested in a controlled way. This study will do a randomized controlled trial to test whether GBO improves clinical care in child and youth mental health. Although the study will use this in child and youth mental health care, if it is successful, it can be tested and applied in any care setting with any type of medical problem. This could change practice at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and throughout Canada.