Aspects of the patient intake process in a psychotherapy clinic

Abstract

Recent interest in psychotherapy services in the National Health Service has raised questions regarding the availability of existing psychotherapy facilities. In attempting to answer some of these questions, a study was made of aspects of the referral and assessment segments of the intake process of 180 patients referred in 1975 to the Paddington Centre for Psychotherapy Adult Out-patient Department. Of this group, 137 were referred for individual psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, 82 of whom were offered assessment interviews, 45 offered treatment and 40 actually began treatment during the study period. An additional seven patients originally assessed for group therapy were offered and began individual treatment. Some characteristics of the referral population, the referring agencies, the effects of a waiting list, and the phenomenon of dropouts are discussed and compared with findings from other Centres.

Reducing psychotherapy dropouts: Maximizing perspective convergence in the psychotherapy dyad.

“…Generally, studies reveal an inverse relationship between therapist experience level and UT (Baekeland & Lundwall, 1975; Rodolfa et al, 1983; Tyson & Reder, 1979), but the literature is far from conclusive. While a retrospective study of 595 patient files at a rural CMHC indicated fewer UTs for more experienced psychotherapists (Scogin, Belon, & Malone, 1986), two university-based investigations yielded no significant effects (Jenkins et al, 1986; Krauskopf et al, 1981).…”