This report was originally available on the Raranga Whatumanawa website which is no longer available. A hard copy of this report was in the collection transferred from MSD in March 2011.

Technical report: 10

This is one of a series of reports produced by Raranga Whatumanawa (The weaving of the heart patterns), a research project undertaken by the Psychology Clinic at Massey University, in conjunction with the Psychology Centre in Hamilton, to investigate the mental health assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes resulting from sexual abuse. The research was funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand (ACC) and contributes to the development of useable national practice guidelines. This particular report presents the findings of a study designed to provide a detailed analysis of the current approaches that ACC Sensitive Claims practitioners employ to formally monitor client therapeutic progress and to ascertain their level of support for integrating formal measures into their practice. It follows up on the findings of Hodgetts et al., 2005 (Technical Report 10), that suggests many respondents do not employ formal monitoring tools. For the current study focus groups or semi-structured interviews were carried out with 54 practitioners nationwide. The findings showed that the majority of participants questioned the validity of structured measurement. The authors argue that many participants chose not to use standard measurement strategies because formal measurement were seen as contradictory to a client-centred approach. It was percieved as not enhancing counselling, and/or they lacked the knowledge and training in the use of psychometrics. Concern was also expressed by numerous participants that ACC would use formal measurement as a management tool to audit practitioners' work, rather than as a therapeutic tool. Participants displayed a strong sense of self-efficacy in relation to their counselling work, frequently citing their professional skills, relationship with the client, and client self-report as adequate to monitor and evaluate therapy progress. The report contains a critique of practitioner's concerns regarding formal measurement. The authors note, however, that a lack of formal measurement could be seen as running counter to 'best practice'. Recommendations are made in relation to how collaboration and negotiation between ACC and Sensitive Claim practitioners might facilitate the affordable introduction of formal psychometric measures. Please do not cite or quote this technical report without permission.

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