Helping More Clients:Using the ACORN Tools to Inform your Therapy

• Clinician accounts for 5-10 times more variance in outcome than treatment method

• Clinician training and years of experience don’t improve client outcomes

• Clinicians cannot achieve the same results without questionnaires

What We Know

Routine Measurement

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Utilizing Client Feedback=

Better Results for your Clients

The Research is Clear

Ignoring the research in our field carries risks to clients

ACORN Overview

Input:

Clients submit electronic questionnaires

Clients fill out paper questionnaires

Questionnaires are translated into usable information on our servers.

Output:

www.Clinicians log in to the ACORN Toolkit online to access information regarding cases.

Submitting Data

To Begin: Log into the toolkit and create forms from the “Forms” menu

• Not sure what form type to use?

• click “Which Forms Should I Choose”

Submitting Data:

Mobile forms work on any device with a web browser

Questionnaire Administration

• Completed by client at each session

• Takes 1-2 minutes to complete

A variety of standardized, reliable questionnaires:

Alliance

Alliance items ask about your relationship with the client.

The use of alliance items has been shown to:

• Reduce no-show and premature termination

• Improve outcomes

Using Alliance

Talk to your clients about alliance items. Encourage honest feedback!

“I know I’m not perfect. I may have trouble believing you if you always just say everything was perfect.”

If they indicate something didn’t work as well as it could have,

find out what could improve

Review their Responses

• Take a moment to thoughtfully review the client’s responses on the form

• Did any of their responses surprise you? If so, discuss it

• You’re not psychic! Check your assumptions by looking at their responses

• 4 out of 5 times clinicians underestimate dropout!

Viewing Data

Once you submit data, these pages help you view it:

• “Toolkit” is your main dashboard. It lets you view your client’s cases in detail.

• “Forms Processed” shows forms we have received. On this page you can look at client responses from a mobile or online form immediately after they submit it

Viewing Data:

Your Toolkit Dashboard

Dashboard: Select Data View

• Summary Only (Default) – Only shows your summary statistics

o Data and Summary – Shows all of your cases

o High Risk Cases – Cases that are high risk for a poor outcome

o Cases in Transition – Cases that are doing well and may be ready to be seen less often

Dashboard: Filter for Data

• Set any filters as desired

• Press the Refresh Button once you’re done

No Need to Close Cases

• Just set the Date Range to the last 2 months! Then cases you haven’t seen in over 2 months will naturally filter out of your dashboard view over time

Benchmarking Outcomes It’s impossible to know if you’re improving

if you never measure how well you’re doing

Effect Size

This score helps give you a way to measure your effectiveness with clients, while controlling for differences in caseload.

Severity Adjusted

Clinical Messages

Messages can help warn you of trends associated with poor outcomes

On your Dashboard: cursor over these to read

Client Progress Graph

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On your Dashboard: Click on client ID for graph

On the Graph Page: Select variables you want to graph

Quickly and easily review client progress over time

Help Menu

• ACORN Help will take you to useful tutorial materials

• Have a question? Let us know! Click Submit Request

What Are We Learning

From ACORN

• Clinicians who look at the toolkit regularly improve

• Clinicians who don’t look at their toolkit do not improve

• Clinicians who stop looking regress

For our latest tutorials and tipsvisit our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1itBfvPkaxRWcJtq2cw_eQ

ACORN FAQs

https://acorncollaboration.org/faqs

Supporting Research

https://acorncollaboration.org/articles