Use of measures and measurement-based care in child and youth mental health: a survey of Australian practitioners

Objective: Use of measures by practitioners in mental health (MH) is a cornerstone of evidence-based practice and essential to high-quality service provision. Session-by-session measure use, known as Measurement-Based Care (MBC), has been shown to improve treatment engagement and outcomes, yet little is known about the use of measures or MBC in Australian child and youth MH practitioners. This study surveyed Australian child and youth MH practitioners to examine the frequency of measure use, what outcomes are measured, and what facilitates measure use. Method: This survey included Australian practitioners (N = 205) working in child and youth MH. Results: Most practitioners reported using measures at some stage during treatment, but around 1 in 7 did not use measures at all. Only 10% used measures for every session or most sessions, which is characteristic of MBC. Symptom severity was measured by 84.3% of practitioners but only 35.6% measured goal attainment and 16.7% therapeutic alliance. The top facilitators of measure use endorsed by practitioners included free measures, better platforms to administer measures, and briefer measures. Conclusions: There is room for improvement in the use of outcome measures by Australian child and youth MH practitioners, and specifically in the use of MBC, which may improve client engagement and outcomes. Implications for the implementation of MBC are discussed.