Quality of MH Care and Treatment Outcomes for Youth

描述（由申请人提供）：本指导职业的最终目标

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ultimate goal of this Mentored Career Development Award (KO1) is to provide the applicant with the skills to establish an independent program of research focused on improving the translation of mental health interventions from the context of efficacy studies to a broader range of children in community treatment settings. The award will allow the applicant to build on strong existing training in the organization of public mental health service systems, in testing interventions in the context of public mental health service systems, as well as a strong background in child development and methods and statistics. The proposed training goals provide additional instruction and mentoring in (1) quality of care research methodology, (2) assessment of psychotherapeutic treatment process and adherence to specific psychotherapeutic treatment interventions, (3) advanced statistical topics central to quality of care research, including statistical sampling, propensity score matching, and instrumental variables analysis, and (4) training in the ethical conduct of research. The research plan is divided into two phases. During Phase I, a survey will be conducted of therapists in California's public mental health service system to estimate the frequency with which therapists employ treatment practices for depression and/or conduct disorders consistent with psychotherapeutic interventions that have a strong base of empirical support in efficacy studies. In Phase II, the outcomes of children receiving treatment consistent with empirically supported treatments (ESTs) will be compared to a matched group of children receiving treatments that are not consistent with ESTs. The results of the first phase will provide an estimate of the degree to which therapists apply ESTs in a public mental health service system and factors that support or inhibit application of ESTs. The second phase will provide an estimate of the effectiveness of ESTs when applied in broader treatment populations. The study will develop a method for understanding factors that affect the translation of ESTs from the tightly controlled settings of efficacy trials to community treatment settings.