Generating practice-based evidence for common mental health problems using routine outcome monitoring: a protocol for a longitudinal naturalistic study in Ecuadorian mental health services

Description

Clara Paz and co-authors set out a protocol for learning from everyday therapy across Ecuador's mental health services. Rather than testing a treatment in a trial, the project watches routine care and monitors outcomes as they happen. A Latin American consortium has unified the data forms across sites, which raises the value of each service's records. The study runs from February 2025 to February 2028.

Eleven services will take part, covering adolescents and adults who seek psychological help, plus their therapists and trainees. Client progress will be tracked with distress measures, alongside background, satisfaction, therapist, and service details. The team will describe first contacts, measure reliable change, hunt for predictors of outcomes, and separate the effects of time, therapist, and service. Results will feed back into the services for improvement and reach wider audiences through papers and conferences. The protocol was approved by a university ethics committee in Ecuador.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13185008