The Psychology Centre

Galyer, K. (2007). Brief interventions in primary care mental health: 2. Monitoring change and assessing outcomes. Paper presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Psychological Society, Hamilton, New Zealand.

A key objective of evaluating The Waikato PHO Brief Interventions Project was to determine the impact of primary health care based therapy using robust outcome measures. Evaluation data collected from therapists and clients (session-by-session and post intervention) indicated that they found the interventions effective. Supporting this view, Reliable Change Index (RCI) scores for all clients who had completed the BSI-18 (74 matched pairs) and GHQ-12 at (68 patched pairs) showed that reliable change had occurred. The majority of clients for whom data was available (n=161/278) were discharged with no further intervention required. Given the clear need, evidence that brief counselling/therapy can assist in managing the amount of psychological distress expressed, and high levels of customer satisfaction with the service, there is good evidence to support the continued provision of brief interventions in primary health care.