| Description |
Rates of mental illness, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, among college students are increasing and, in some cases, doubling. The worsening mental health of these students leads to adverse outcomes, including lower levels of educational attainment, increased substance use, and elevated risk of suicide. Group therapy is an effective intervention to address common concerns and provide support and education, but there is often no measure of their efficacy in practice. Measurement-Based Care (MBC) is an evidence-based practice that uses validated screeners to measure the effectiveness of interventions but is also underutilized in practice. Local Problem: A rural Southeastern Idaho university's counseling center provides free group therapy services to its students but does not use MBC to establish efficacy. This project aimed to establish and increase the university's counselors' use of MBC in therapy groups by developing and implementing an MBC protocol and weekly training. Methods: Group facilitators completed a pre-implementation survey to ascertain their knowledge, attitudes, current use, perceived barriers, and comfort level with MBC. The project's interventions targeted developing and implementing a protocol for facilitator education and use of MBC at the Counseling Center. At the end of the project, group facilitators completed a survey to evaluate the use of MBC in terms of knowledge, feasibility, satisfaction, usability, and perceived efficacy. A second data set, collected from group participants, recorded use rates of validated screeners gathered by Qualtrics and displayed in Google Sheets. Interventions: Group facilitators attended a presentation about the MBC protocol and received ten weekly trainings via electronic mail about MBC resources and recommendations for use. The protocol included a QR code linked to the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires to simplify MBC use in groups and the creation of a spreadsheet tool for utilization and management of data by group facilitators. Results: Post-intervention MBC use in unique groups (N=16) increased from 0% of groups the previous semester to 81% of groups held in the fall semester of 2023. Of the group facilitators (N=15), 14 (93%) completed the pre-implementation survey, and 13 (87%) completed the post- implementation survey. Thirteen (87%) group facilitators used the MBC protocol. Most group facilitators agreed that using MBC screeners is feasible during group time (n=12). All facilitators who completed the post-implementation survey (n=13) reported feeling comfortable using the provided QR code linked PHQ-9 and GAD-7, and nine (69%) of those who reported using the MBC protocol during this project plan to continue its use. Conclusion: The development and implementation of an MBC protocol and weekly training increased the use of MBC among group facilitators at a rural university counseling center. Ongoing support through email reminders, making the QR code available in therapy rooms, updating dates on provided tools, and training about the MBC protocol will facilitate and maintain its use in therapy groups at this site. Replicating this project with larger sample sizes and in other university counseling centers would further demonstrate the generalizability of this quality improvement project. |
