Development of a new measurement feedback system for children with emotional problems

Preliminary results in a Cochrane report currently undertaken at our institution (Kornør, et al., 2015) on the effect of client feedback, identified several MFS instruments that can be used with children and adolescents. The existing MFS systems suffer, however, from use of measures that are not well-validated, a rigid structure that is not adaptable, or a monetized approach to distribution that is not compatible with large-scale distribution. To develop a new MFS for the Echo study, our research group conducted a pilot study funded by the Norwegian Research Council establishing assessment protocols in close cooperation with first line services. One part of this assessment protocol is a new idiographic measure that has been developed and evaluated in a study with adolescents (Tollefsen et al.,2019; under review). The new Measurement Feedback System for use in the current study and later the services in the municipality is called “myEcho” and it will be developed in close collaboration with the University of Oslo. It will include an idiographic measure of personal aims and items measuring symptom levels, with everything displayed on a visual data dashboard to guide the interventionists in developing goals for the children. We will present the results from the studies mentioned above, address the limitations of established MFS systems, and give a picture of the MFS system that is currently under development for use in our study. Reference: Kornør, H., et al. (2015). Client feedback in psychological therapy for children and adolescents with mental health problems. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6).