Training Practices in Routine Outcome Monitoring Among Accredited Psychology Doctoral Programs in Canada

Routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is an evidence-based practice that involves regularly measuring treatment progress and alliance/client engagement. ROM use is associated with better client outcomes, so much so that a Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) task force recently recommended that ROM training and supervision be included in CPA's Accreditation Standards. Unfortunately, previous research suggests Canadian ROM use, including in psychology training, is relatively low. The objective of this study was to gather information about ROM training practices in Canadian psychology programs, with an emphasis on training clinics. Data were obtained for 21 CPA-accredited Clinical, Counseling, or Combined Clinical/Counseling Psychology graduate programs (60% of eligible programs). Only seven (38.9%) of the 18 programs with a training clinic that provided ROM use data reported that they typically use ROM in their clinics, and the majority of these did not require supervisors to use ROM data in supervision. Top-rated reasons for using ROM focused on the educational benefits for students. The use of ROM to evaluate students' strengths and weaknesses was ranked least important. The most important reasons for not using ROM were resource- and supervisor-related concerns. The low use observed in this study is consistent with past research suggesting that the use of ROM in Canadian psychology programs is low compared to American counterparts. Benefits of and resources for successful implementation in psychology training clinics are discussed. Future research should focus on implementation efforts in psychology training settings. Public Significance Statement Training in monitoring psychotherapy progress session-by-session has been recommended for students in graduate psychology programs. The extent of such training in Canadian psychology programs was examined. Overall, training and practice in psychotherapy monitoring in psychology training clinics was low and should be increased.