Development Objectives

Polaris-Youth is designed to provide full outcomes management and clinical decision support capabilities. It is directly responsive to the needs of each of the various stakeholders in the treatment process. Criteria for Polaris-Youth development include:

• Strength-based, culturally appropriate and psychometrically sound measures

• Ease of integration into the normal treatment process

• Minimal respondent and administrative burden

• Ability to provide documentation for individual and program outcomes

• Monitors family/caregiver environment and functioning during treatment

• Detection of inauthentic/inconsistent responding

• Presentation of adolescent, parent/caregiver and clinician perspectives

• Privacy-protected data base management

• Guidance for decisions concerning placement and service intensity

• Analysis and reporting of individual patient data to support clinical decision-making

• Severity adjusted aggregate data to provide for valid comparisons of outcomes between programs and over time.