Developing integrated evidence-based interventions (EBI) that target multiple but related emotional problems, that is, a transdiagnostic approach, has been an important task for research groups related to the Echo study. One example is the newly developed intervention, EMOTION Coping Kids (Martinsen, K., et al., 2014), an intensive course of 20 sessions that run for 10 weeks for 2 children aged 7 – 12 years with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. The program, based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), provides an intensive training in order to integrate and internalize the coping skills necessary to produce lasting change. An ongoing RCT study, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (N=560; NFR nr. 228846/H10; ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02340637) is being conducted in 36 schools in seven municipalities in several regions in Norway. Results based on screening 1686 children show that the applied screening methods are able to detect a large number of children in a community sample exhibiting high levels of both anxiety and depression (Martinsen et al., 2016) and that the first line services may benefit from similar screening methods.
The study concluded that such interventions hold considerable promise, but that further investigation is needed to optimize and maintain effects when the interventions are transferred into routine practice. One solution for this challenge, beside trying to restructure and optimize the content of the program, is to combine psychosocial intervention with measurement and feedback routines.
Therefor will our research group conduct this pilot study in the municipalities, funded by Norwegian Research council (NFR nr. 261632), to establish assessment protocols for use in Measurement and feedback systems (MFS) in close cooperation with practitioners in first line services.
MFS serve several functions: to assess relevant variables to decide on the main problem area, to help develop a treatment plan, to tailor the intervention to the needs of the child, and to assess the outcomes of a specific intervention. Repeated data collection gives the service provider regular, objective feedback about the patient’s progress during the course of the intervention. The results of the measurements are graphically displayed for easy interpretation. An MFS should include measures with good psychometric properties, be sensitive to change, and give useful information that helps to improve the decision-making process (Seidman, et al., 2010).
The aim of this pilot study is to prepare for the development of the "MittEcho" feedback system.
