Measures for Clinical Practice: A Sourcebook

Today, as practitioners in all areas of the human services are increasingly held accountable for monitoring and evaluating their practices in an objective and efficient manner, a sound familiarity with objective measurement is more essential than ever before. In addition, practitioners must also be concerned with satisfying a dizzying array of state, agency, health maintenance organization, and insurance company guidelines.

For more than twelve years, through two highly acclaimed editions and now in an updated and expanded third edition, Kevin Corcoran and Joel Fischer's standard reference, Measures for Clinical Practice, has enabled professionals to gather this vital information easily and effectively. In Measures for Clinical Practice, Volume 1: Couples, Families, and Children, and Volume 2: Adults, Corcoran and Fischer provide an extensive collection of more than 400"rapid assessment instruments" (RAIs), including many questionnaires and scales, which assess virtually any problem commonly encountered in clinical practice. Corcoran and Fischer have revised this edition to reflect new research and contemporary clinical practices. They include new scales and materials in areas such as assessment in culturally diverse populations and measurement in managed care systems, as well as the best instruments updated from the previous editions.

Brief and easy to administer, these "best practice measures" will be useful for all types of therapeutic and theoretical orientations. All instruments are actually reprinted in the book, and are carefully introduced and evaluated to aid in their selection. Corcoran and Fischer explain the principles of measurement and how to apply them in practice. They explore the range of assessment techniques available, including behavioral observations, rating scales, and client logs, as well as unobtrusive, electromechanical, and standardized measures. And after examining the advantages and disadvantages of rapid assessment instruments, they show practitioners how to effectively select and administer these measures as part of the treatment process.

More comprehensive than ever, this edition of Measures for Clinical Practice is essential to every practitioner and student of social work, psychology, psychiatry, nursing, counseling, and the rehabilitative therapies.

Kevin Corcoran, Ph.D., J.D., is a professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University.