# Clinician-Consumer Collaboration in Transdiagnostic, Modular Youth Psychotherapy

> **NIH NIH F31** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $38,060

## Abstract

Project Summary
A majority of youths referred to community mental health services shows symptoms of more than one disorder.
Transdiagnostic, modular psychotherapies are designed for such youths and have proliferated in recent years,
with the most thoroughly-studied being Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression,
Trauma, or Conduct Problems (MATCH). MATCH has produced better clinical outcomes than usual and
standard evidence-based care in some effectiveness trials, but not others, highlighting the need to identify
methods for improving its effectiveness. One such method may be to address a significant challenge of MATCH
and modular therapies in general: the requirement that clinicians make numerous and frequent decisions
about module selection and application throughout treatment. In MATCH, clinicians are encouraged to make
these decisions based on baseline and weekly measurement-based care data from MATCH consumers—i.e.,
youths and caregivers. However, clinician use of these measures in decision-making is not standardized or
systematic; thus, the degree to which consumer perspectives are leveraged to inform decisions is variable.
Beyond the use of consumer-reported measures, clinical decisions might also benefit from information derived
from collaborative interactions with consumers. Indeed, a growing body of research indicates that clinician-
consumer collaboration can improve decision-making in, and the personalization and effectiveness of, youth
psychotherapy. In line with the NIMH’s Research Priority 4.1 “to improve the effectiveness…of existing mental
health services,” the current study aims to assess both forms of clinician-consumer collaboration: (1) measure-
based—i.e., clinician use of consumer-reported measures to guide decisions, and (2) interaction-based–i.e.,
clinician efforts to engage one or both consumers in collaborative decision-making during MATCH sessions.
This study will leverage data from a completed trial, in which 42 clinicians provided MATCH to 200 clinically-
referred youths (7-15 years old). Using these data, this study will assess measure-based clinician-consumer
collaboration at the start of MATCH (Aim 1), and throughout MATCH sessions (Aim 2), as predictors of
treatment processes and youth clinical outcomes. To assess interaction-based collaboration, Aim 3 will involve
the development, application, and evaluation of an observational coding system of clinician-consumer
collaboration during audio-recorded MATCH sessions. This coding process will yield data to test (Aim 4)
interaction-based clinician-consumer collaboration throughout MATCH as a predictor of the same processes
and outcomes tested in Aims 1 and 2. Overall, the proposed research will provide multi-method tests of the
associations between several forms of clinician-consumer collaboration across the course of care, and key
processes and outcomes of MATCH. Ultimately, this work is positioned to advance our understanding of
clinician-c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10312894
- **Project number:** 1F31MH127862-01
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Olivia Mae Fitzpatrick
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $38,060
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10312894

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10312894, Clinician-Consumer Collaboration in Transdiagnostic, Modular Youth Psychotherapy (1F31MH127862-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10312894. Licensed CC0.

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