TheScholarsRepository@LLU: Digital Archive of Research, Scholarship & Creative Works
Abstract
Over the past decade, mental health has been moving in the direction of empirically-supported treatments. Currently, there are many empirically-supported treatment modalities that have been shown to be efficacious for various psychological disorders, specifically mood and anxiety disorders. However, the face-to-face treatment literature reflects low levels of treatment access and participation. Approximately half of participants with clinically-significant levels of depression received some treatment, evidence-based or not (Kessler et al., 2007). Even for participants who are able to successfully access services, engagement with treatment is often low, and dropout rates are high. There is some evidence that participants’ preferences for treatment are positively related to participant engagement and subsequent outcomes. It is possible that low levels of engagement reflect a mismatch between participant preferences and the specific treatment that is delivered by mental health providers. The current study evaluated treatment preferences among a diverse sample of mental health outpatients and will contribute to the growing literature on individual preferences for empirically-supported psychological treatments
