ABSTRACT
Florida's Mental Health Act was amended in 2005 and 2006 to include licensed mental health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists, respectively, to the list of professionals authorized to initiate emergency commitments. The present study evaluates the volume of involuntary emergency commitments by type of initiator for a 5 year period. The results indicate that allowing licensed mental health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapist to initiate emergency commitments has not been related to increased numbers of emergency commitments or a higher proportion of emergency commitments being initiated by mental health professionals. Potential policy and fiscal implications, as well as future directions for research, are discussed.
Subject(s)
Commitment of Mentally Ill , Emergency Services, Psychiatric , Commitment of Mentally Ill/legislation & jurisprudence , Commitment of Mentally Ill/statistics & numerical data , Emergency Services, Psychiatric/legislation & jurisprudence , Emergency Services, Psychiatric/statistics & numerical data , Florida , Humans , Mental Health Services , Physicians , Police , WorkforceABSTRACT
This meta-analysis examines associations between therapeutic relationship variables, and the extent to which they account for variability in treatment outcomes, in 49 youth treatment studies. Correlations between therapeutic relationship variables ranged from modest to strong. Among the best predictors of youth outcomes were counselor interpersonal skills, therapist direct influence skills, youth willingness to participate in treatment, parent willingness to participate in treatment, youth participation in treatment, and parent participation in treatment. Adequacy of current approaches to conceptualizing and measuring therapeutic relationship variables, such as the therapeutic alliance, in youth and family therapy is discussed. This paper represents the most comprehensive analysis of therapeutic relationship constructs in the youth treatment literature.
Subject(s)
Family Therapy/methods , Interpersonal Relations , Mental Disorders/therapy , Adolescent , Child , Humans , Patient Care Team , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Recently there has been an increasing emphasis in the youth and family mental health treatment literature on the use of empirically supported treatments (ESTs). In contrast there has been scant attention paid to more universal aspects of the therapy process that may have even greater impact upon therapy outcomes. It is likely that the success of the techniques proposed by ESTs may depend on the presence of common process factors. In this article, the authors explore the status of common process factors research in the youth and family therapy literature, and propose a theoretical model linking specific therapeutic relationship variables and treatment outcomes for children and adolescents. This model is intended to guide synthesis of the empirical evidence for common process factors in youth and family treatment and to stimulate future research on common process factors.
