Measuring and Monitoring Patient Informed Clinical Outcomes In Psychological Therapy Supervision - A Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

Providing feedback on patient progress to therapists improves clinical outcomes for patients, particularly those who are failing to improve with therapy. The encouraging research has been carried out by a small group of researchers, largely working in the United States health care context. The samples studied have been young people attending university counselling services, suffering from mild mental health disorders. The group studies are therefore not similar to patients seen for psychological therapy in the NHS. Also given that therapists are not necessarily alert to treatment failure, have an overly optimistic view of their patients progress even when provided with evidence to the contrary, clinical supervision may be a more effective method through which to provide patient informed clinical outcomes than directly to therapists themselves.

We will assess if providing feedback through the supervision process is more effective than providing this information to therapists themselves in terms of improving clinical outcomes, particularly for patients who are failing to improve with routine NHS Psychological therapy.