Abstract

A computer-aided system for monitoring and evaluating family interventions is presented. The aim is to help integrate systematic data collection and analysis with clinical practice. Social work trainees use the system to monitor their task-oriented family interventions. Each practitioner uses a simple AB design to monitor clients. The data are fed into a personal computer that uses a dBaseill program to provide feedback on the current status of each family and time-series graphs that indicate changes over time. The data from all cases are then aggregated to monitor the whole caseload and to help evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The complete set of data allows the statistical analysis of the relationships between client characteristics, interventions, and outcomes. Reactions to the program and difficulties encountered by the users are discussed.