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Psychology Colloquia

17 October 2006

Title

"Assessing Clinical Services at Montana State Hospital:  A Pilot Project"
 

Speaker

Sarah Angstman is in her fourth year in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Montana. Her research interests include program evaluation, development of interventions for rural and Alaska Native populations, substance abuse, and serious mental illness. She is supervised by Dr. Kari Jo Harris ( UM Pace ) and Dr. David Schuldberg.
 

Time & Venue

4:10pm, SS 356
 

Abstract

Montana State Hospital (MSH) provides inpatient psychiatric care to Montana residents. To assist the Hospital with the justification and funding, as well as quality improvement of their clinical programs, the author has collaborated with the Psychology Department at MSH on the design and implementation of a pilot evaluation program.  The data obtained in this project support a number of functions, including the development of future evaluation programs, the improvement and justification of current clinical services and the design of additional services in the future. This paper describes the pilot research evaluating the hospital’s existing clinical services and reports the findings of that research. In summary, the study found that by self-report, patients at MSH show symptom reduction, improved life satisfaction, and a change in attitude consistent with better medication compliance over the course of their hospitalizations. We also evaluated the hospital’s “Coping Skills” treatment track, a series of group interventions based upon the principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  There are preliminary indications of an interaction between time (admission to post-test) and treatment track (Coping skills versus other), with patients belonging to the “Coping Skills” track at MSH showing greater improvement over time than those not in the Coping Skills track.

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last revised 05 September 2006

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