Family Service Ontario Demo Pilot

The goal of the Family Service Ontario Demo Pilot is to have as complete a data set as possible so we can demonstrate:

• how psychotherapy at Family Service Ontario agencies is helping clients, and
• the diversity of clients accessing services.

The Family Service Ontario Demo Project is using evidence-based tools within the Greenspace platform to enable consistent progress measurement of client treatment outcomes (depression, anxiety and therapeutic alliance).

Initial Data Analysis and Early Results

The mid-summer analysis of the psychotherapy service outcomes from 29 Family Service agencies participating in the Family Service Ontario Demo Project covered data from September 2018 to August 2019. These early results show a significant and substantial decrease in overall levels of anxiety and depression for clients participating in Family Service Ontario psychotherapy services.

Anxiety decreased for 406 psychotherapy clients working with Family Service agency professionals – on average by four points or from mid- to lower-level anxiety on the rating scale.

Depression also realized an average four-point improvement following Family Service agency provided psychotherapy, with 401 clients moving from mid-high to mid-level range on the rating scale.

These decreases from the first to last available measurements within Greenspace include both clients in the middle of therapy and those who have completed services.

As well as reduced symptoms, therapeutic relationship significantly improved by two points from the start of therapy, based on a sample of 239 clients. Disability scores significantly decreased by two points after Family Service agency psychotherapy, based on reports from 239 clients.

Client Demographics

Of the over 900 clients enrolled in the Family Service Ontario Demo project so far, nearly 80 per cent provided demographic details that show:

• About half are under 35 years of age.
• Seventy percent are women and twenty-nine percent are men.
• Six per cent are newcomers to Canada.
• About one in five are visible minorities.
• One in 20 clients are Francophone.
• Half had an annual family income of less than $35,000.
• Over half reported supporting two or more people through their income.

Concurrent Issues and Primary Care
Most clients in the Family Service Ontario Demo Project reported concurrent issues with one in four clients reporting an experience of trauma and/or abuse.

When reporting on having a primary care provider or family physician, about one in 10 clients did not have primary health connections.

Project Next Steps
Larger samples at project end point will enable Family Service Ontario to confirm and expand these promising early results and demographic trends.

Learn More
For full data analysis results or more information, contact Dr. Anne Bergen, Director, Knowledge to Action Consulting Inc. at anne@knowledgetoaction.ca.