Case formulation quality checklist: a revision based upon clinicians ' views

Evaluations of the impact of case formulation on outcomes for offenders are needed. The quality of case formulations may impact on outcomes, hence one essential aspect in outcome evaluation is quality assessment. A case formulation quality checklist (CFQC) was constructed and showed good reliability and internal consistency. However, feedback from users was the CFCQ could be improved. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the opinions of professionals who had used the CFQC to provide a basis for its revision.

This was a qualitative study, in which ten professionals who had used the CFQC were asked their views about it. An inductive thematic analysis was used to organise the data.

Seven themes were identified. First, the importance of assessing quality in case formulation; second, the appropriate and comprehensive content of the CFQC; third, the practicality of the CFQC; fourth, validity and reliability issues; fifth, ways to improve the CFQC; sixth, potential as a training tool; seventh, limitations of the use of the CFQC. The CFQC was revised in light of these comments, producing the CFQC-R.

The reliability and consistency of the CFQC-R needs to be examined, as does validity, particularly predictive validity. This information will better enable research into whether case formulation improves outcomes for service users, and whether better quality case formulations lead to greater improvements.

The CFQC-R may be of value in training and supervising clinicians in constructing case formulations.

The CFQC-R is reproduced here so that researchers and practitioners may use the checklist.