title: The effectiveness of clinician feedback in the treatment of depression in the community mental health system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We describe the development and evaluation of a clinician feedback intervention for use in community mental health settings. The Community Clinician Feedback System (CCFS) was developed in collaboration with a community partner to meet the needs of providers working in such community settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CCFS consists of weekly performance feedback to clinicians, as well as a clinical feedback report that assists clinicians with patients who are not progressing as expected. Patients in the randomized sample (N = 100) were predominantly female African Americans, with a mean age of 39 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Satisfaction ratings of the CCFS indicate that the system was widely accepted by clinicians and patients. A hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis comparing rates of change across conditions controlling for baseline gender, age, and racial group indicated a moderate effect in favor of the feedback condition for symptom improvement, t(94) = 2.41, p = .017, d = .50. Thirty-six percent of feedback patients compared with only 13% of patients in the no-feedback condition demonstrated clinically significant change across treatment, χ2(1) = 6.13, p = .013.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that our CCFS is acceptable to providers and patients of mental health services and has the potential to improve the effectiveness of services for clinically meaningful depression in the community mental health setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Mary Beth
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Connolly Gibbons
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Villanova University.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kurtz
authors.affiliation: NHS Human Services.
authors.forename: Donald L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Rachel A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mack
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jacqueline K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rothbard
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Boston University.
authors.forename: Susan V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Eisen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gallop
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crits-Christoph
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D057566:Self Report; D016896:Treatment Outcome