Effects of waiting for clinical services on attrition, problem resolution, satisfaction, attitudes toward psychotherapy, and treatment outcome: A review of the literature.

Abstract

Thirteen studies examining the effects of waiting for clinical services from university counseling centers were reviewed. Client attrition rates were found to be relatively high, but not necessarily related to dissatisfaction or the lack of problem resolution. The effects of service delays on client attitudes and treatment outcomes were mixed and interactive with other clinical and administrative variables. Negative effects were more pronounced for personal, urgent, and severe concerns. Clinical strategies, administrative procedures, and intake systems for reducing these negative effects are described.RONALD J. MAY received his PhD in Counseling Psychology from Michigan State University and is currently in private practice in Madison, Wisconsin. He has served as the Clinical Coordinator and Director of three university counseling centers.

Clinical Intake of Child and Adolescent Consumers in a Rural Community Mental Health Center: Does Wait-time Predict Attendance?

“…Additionally, wait-time may interact with certain consumer variables in its impact on attrition. For instance, within the broader mental health literature, some data suggest that pre-intake wait-time may have different effects on attendance based on the urgency of the consumer need (Archer 1984;May 1991). While a clear model of factors contributing to pre-intake attrition in the mental health care of children and adolescents has not yet been empirically identified, there is agreement within the literature that pre-intake attrition is a significant challenge to the efficient delivery of outpatient mental health services.…”

“…We expected that increased wait-time would result in increased odds of an unattended appointment. Additionally, based on suggestions in the literature (Archer 1984;May 1991) and clinical intuition, we explored the possible interaction effect between the consumer variable of urgency of need and the clinic variable of wait-time on the prediction of intake attendance.…”

Wait Time Impact of Co-Located Primary Care Mental Health Services: The Effect of Adding Collaborative Care in Northern Ontario

“…Many Canadians consider timely access to care as their essential right and a basic pillar of universal health care. 1 Long wait times have been viewed as a threat undermining public confidence in medicare, 2 and have been shown to increase dissatisfaction with care, [3][4][5] as well as morbidity and mortality. 6 Nevertheless, obtaining accurate wait-list data in multicentre research studies is complicated owing to variation in the definitions of wait times and in health record processes.…”

Using New and Innovative Technologies to Assess Clinical Stage in Early Intervention Youth Mental Health Services: Evaluation Study (Preprint)

“…Additionally, clinicians and services also face substantial demands to reduce waiting times, while providing appropriate clinical care. Typically, service systems respond by prioritising assessment, limiting the number of intervention sessions available and give priority to more urgent cases [58]. We hypothesised that the difference in staging by the face-to-face clinicians might also be contributed to by clinical awareness of these service constraints.…”