Is TherapyCharts Person Centered
Evidence-Based Treatment and Person-Centered Recovery
There are two important trends in psychotherapy treatment planning: (1) Evidence-Based Treatment and; (2) Person-Centered Recovery approach. In some practice settings one or both of these psychotherapy methods are mandated. Wiley’s Treatment Planner books, part of the PracticePlanner Series have copious, high-quality content that addresses both of these trends.
Evidence-Based Treatment:
The use of evidence-based treatment (EBT) is becoming the standard of care in mental health counseling (Kazdin, 2008). EBT has been endorsed, among others, by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, National Association of Social Workers, The American Counseling Association, The Association for Addiction Professionals, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. The American Psychological Association has defined Evidence-Based Practice as, “the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and preferences.” Consistent with this definition we have identified those psychological treatments with the best available supporting research evidence (see Sturmey and Hersen, 2012; Nathan and Gorman, 2015), added objectives and interventions reflecting them in pertinent chapters, and identified these with this symbol: EBT (inside a triangle). Our bestselling Treatment Planner books (Adult, Adolescent, Child, Addiction, Couples, Family, SPMI, Crisis, School, Personality, and Older Adult) have hundreds of EBT Objectives and Interventions suggested for consideration when the practitioner is creating a treatment plan with and for his/her client. These suggestions will remind you of techniques you are probably familiar with and may also present some unfamiliar, evidence-based interventions that you may want to learn more about before you discuss with the client integrating them into the treatment plan.
Person-Centered Recovery: In its final report entitled Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health called for recovery to be the “common, recognized outcome of mental health services” (New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003). To define recovery, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Interagency Committee on Disability Research in partnership with six other Federal agencies convened the National Consensus Conference on Mental Health Recovery and Mental Health Systems Transformation (SAMHSA, 2005). Over 110 expert panelists participated including mental health consumers, family members, providers, advocates, researchers, academicians, managed care representatives, accreditation bodies, state and local public officials, and others. From these deliberations, the following consensus statement was “Mental health recovery is a journey of healing and transformation for a person with a mental health problem to be able to live a meaningful life in a community of his or her choice while striving to achieve maximum human potential. Recovery is a multi-faceted concept based on the following 10 fundamental elements and guiding principles: 1) Self-direction 2) Strengths-based 3) Individualized and person-centered 4) Peer support 5) Empowerment 6) Respect 7) Holistic 8) Responsibility 9) Nonlinear 10) Hope” The 10 principals of mental health recovery are defined in an Appendix to each of the same bestselling books listed in the paragraph above (with the addition of The Group Therapy Treatment Planner). We have also created a set of Goal, Objective, and Intervention statements that reflect these 10 principles. The psychology literature contains authors who have made a case for the advantages of implementing shared decision making associated with Person-Centered planning (e.g., Drake and Deegan (2009); Drake, Deegan, and Rapp (2012). Some counselors may be mandated to create the client’s treatment plan using a Person-Centered Recovery approach. Adams and Geider (2013) have written about how to engage clients in building and enacting collaborative treatment plans and have summarized the evidence basis that person- centered care works. The clinician who desires to insert into the client treatment plan specific statements reflecting a Person-Centered Recovery Model orientation may choose from the menu of items found in the Treatment Planner appendix.
In addition to this list, we believe that many of the Goal, Objective, and Intervention statements found in the chapters reflect a Person-Centered Recovery orientation. For example, our assessment interventions are meant to identify how the problem affects this unique client and the strengths that the client brings to the treatment. Additionally, an intervention statement such as, “Assist the client in finding positive, hopeful things in his/her life at the present time” from the Suicide Ideation chapter is evidence that recovery model content permeates items listed throughout our chapters. However, if the clinician desires a more focused set of statements directly related to each principle guiding the Person-Centered Recovery model, they can be found in an Appendix for these books. In short, many of the Treatment Planner books have directly addressed Evidence-Based Treatment and Person-Centered Recovery and have content to satisfy this direction for treatment planning. Look for the EBT symbol and find the Recovery appendix for suggested statements to add to the client’s treatment plan.
Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, Executive Summary. The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003). Dept. of Health andHuman Services.
Adams, N, and. Grieder, D. (2013). Treatment planning for person-centered care: Shared decision making for whole health. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Drake, R., Deegan, P. and Rapp, C. (2012). The promise of shared decision making in mental health. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 34(1), 7-13.
Drake, R. and Deegan, P. (2009). Shared decision making is an ethical imperative. Psychiatric Services, 60(11), 1555.
Kazdin, Alan E. (2008). Evidence-based treatment and practice: New opportunities to bridge clinical research and practice, enhance the knowledge base, and improve patient care. American Psychologist, Vol 63(3), Apr 2008, 146-159.
Nathan, P. and Gorman, J. (Eds.) (2015). A guide to treatments that work. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sturmey, P. and Hersen, M. (Eds.) (2012). Handbook of evidence-based practice in clinical psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2005). National Consensus Conference on Mental Health Recovery and Systems Transformation. Rockville, Md: Dept. of Health and Human Services.
