This article explores ways of predicting premature counseling termination using scales from BTPI (Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory). The article is jointly authored by two practicing counselors and a university professor. According to the article, managed mental-health care has brought about sweeping changes to mental health assessment modalities. Managed mental-health care (MMHC) mostly affects institutions such as universities and mental-health institutions.
The constraints of MMHC have led counselors to look for the most effective assessment protocols that are considerate of cost and accountability. The article notes that failure of clients to keep their scheduled appointments leads to wastage of resources. In addition, it is noted that premature termination of counseling services affects both clients and counselors negatively.
The prevalence of premature therapy is estimated to be fifty percent across all counseling platforms according to the authors. The article continues by investigating premature termination’s variables focusing on the clients, the counselors, and institutions’ administrators. Some of the addressed variables include clients’ economic status, the counselor’s gender, client motivation, and self-efficacy. The authors concentrate on BTPI as the main assessment method in their study.
According to the article, BTPI is an evaluation tool that focuses on clients’ personalities. According to the authors of this article, BTPI is yet to be verified as an apt tool for predicting premature termination from counseling. Therefore, the authors sought to build on the functionalities of BTPI as a means of predicting premature termination from counseling.
This study focuses on the counseling centers in universities. Some of the scales that were used as predictors of premature termination from counseling include REL (Problems in Relationship Formation), CLM (Close-Mindedness), EXP (Low Expectation Benefit), and NAR (Self-Oriented/Narcissism).
According to the article, the participants of this study were sourced from the counseling centre of a moderately sized university in the United States. The sample of the study excluded those clients who were meeting with their counselors for the purposes of medication. Overall, a sample of 95 clients was picked for the purposes of this study. All these clients were involved in individual counseling sessions.
Furthermore, the study involved a total of twenty counselors who all performed some form of counseling services. Out of these twenty counselors, twenty four percent were licensed while seventy six percent were non-licensed counselors. The study utilized 210 true/false questions as well as 14 BTPI scales. The BTPI scales were interpreted using the BTPI manual.
The study’s procedure started with obtaining written consents from all the study’s participants. The next step involved a completion of the BTPI by all the clients involved in the study.
The counseling staff was informed about the purpose and the goals of the study. However, the study’s specific hypotheses were not revealed to the counseling staff to avoid instances of result-manipulation. According to this article, “the results of the study revealed that only 2 out of the 95 study’s participants did not receive termination-ratings” (Hatchett, Han & Cooker, 2002).
Moreover, out of the ninety-three participants who received termination classifications, forty eight point eight percent qualified as ‘premature terminators’. The article’s discussion notes that according to the study’s results, ‘BTPI is a valid tool in the prediction of premature termination from counseling’. Among the 16 scales that were used in the study, five scales emerged as the most reliable predictors of premature termination.
Reference
Hatchett, G. T., Han, K., & Cooker, P. G. (2002). Predicting premature termination from counseling using the Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory. Assessment, 9(2), 156-163.