Development Objectives

PsyberCare-CD was designed to reflect the needs of each of the various stakeholders involved in the treatment and recovery process. The guidelines used in the development of PsyberCare-CD lay the groundwork for measurement that is scientifically sound, organizationally practical and valuable to PsyberMetrics’ clients. The development objectives include:

• Psychometrically strong measures
• Low administrative and respondent burden
• Easy integration into routine clinical practice
• Clinically actionable information during the course of treatment
• Actionable systems-level information which meets or exceeds the “outcomes” requirements of accrediting organizations
• A sound empirical basis for system decision parameters (e.g., threshold values for services matching; identification of high risk cases)
• Ongoing refinement and improvement in performance with the ultimate goal of predicting the type of treatment which will be the most effective for a patient entering treatment
• Detection of inauthentic responding (data quality indicators)

Benefits

PsyberCare-CD is a highly customizable system designed to meet the needs of a wide range of treatment organizations and stakeholders, leading to improved outcomes for patients, a more efficient use of resources and a reduction in relapse rates.

Patients

• Ensures that a patient is receiving the most appropriate and effective treatment
• Facilitates patient involvement in treatment, providing incentives for patients to continue modifying recovery strategies to better achieve treatment goals.
• Patients are more satisfied with the treatment process and its outcomes

Counselors

• Receive support for treatment planning and monitoring
• Can discuss reports with patients to motivate and to strengthen rapport/”bond”
• Helped to determine whether treatment is “working”
• Patient severity indicators, strengths, critical symptoms, progress and satisfaction with treatment are all provided on a real-time, clinically actionable report
• May have less paperwork due to the availability of reports for the clinical record
• Patients at high risk of relapse or dropout are identified
• Data quality indicators help clinicians to know whether data is reliable

Office Staff

• Use of system software requires little training
• Experience a negligible increase in their work load
• Are provided with software tools for the efficient management of data collection
• Easily integrated into the daily routine of an organization

Program managers/administrators

• Are provided with data on patient progress, targeting of services, and demographics summarized in aggregate reports
• Can use reports for counselor training/development or for supervision. Clinical supervisors can quickly review their supervisee’s caseloads to identify problematic cases for review
• Obtain standardized, reliable, severity adjusted outcomes data
• Helped to identify counselor’s strengths and weaknesses (e.g., for staff development, differential referral)
• Are provided with data useful for accreditation, clinical supervision, identifying “best practice” models, and facilitating utilization review
• May use the system as the foundation for meaningful CQI initiatives

Payers

• Can enhance and reduce the staff time required for utilization review
• Receive standardized and clinically relevant information about program performance
• Are able to document quality of the care they purchase