Mental Health Research

Across therapeutic services, clients are asked to respond to a short survey prior to their first appointment. Follow-up surveys are administered once a month during a designated “research week,” asking clients if they are satisfied with SCYFC services and better able to manage their problems.

In our Early Childhood program, staff use a comprehensive screening process to gather useful baseline measures of variables such as self-control, sensory functioning, parenting confidence, and trauma history. This information is used to make informed decisions about treatment placement, planning and progress. In addition to providing important information about individual families, the data is compiled into a research database that is used to further refine and improve our early childhood services including individual, family, and group therapy as well parent education.

In our After School and Summer programs, we use parallel groups to explore the effectiveness of different treatment methods. These programs focus on adolescents and their parents and provide data on possible changes in communication, self-control, problem solving and respect for others.