A case study of lessons learnt from implementing a routine outcome monitoring system for psychotherapy in a South African community clinic

Monitoring outcomes in psychotherapy is important for advancing research into empirically supported treatments, collecting data to inform practice-based evidence and for monitoring patient treatment responses during routine care. We implemented two routine outcome monitoring measures in a community psychology clinic in South Africa, namely, the Outcome Rating Scale and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. In this article, we adopt a case study methodology to describe and critically reflect on the implementation process and evaluate the utility of the outcome data collected during the first year of implementation. Our findings suggest that the measures have some utility but that there were significant problems with implementation. We found that Outcome Rating Scale and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale scores correlated in the expected direction; however, Outcome Rating Scale intake scores for the present population were at odds with the measure’s norms. The findings highlight the care that needs to be taken to change routine clinical practice when outcome measures are implemented in local settings and the need for research to validate the use of these ROM measures in South African clinical settings.