Practice-Based Evidence in Psychotherapy in Ecuador

The CORE-OM (Evans et al., 2002) is a 34-item self-report instrument designed for use in heterogeneous services and based on a pan-theoretic core of psychological distress, including subjective well-being, problems, risk, and functioning. Items are scored on a scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always or almost always). Higher scores indicate greater psychological distress. This instrument is suitable as an initial assessment tool and as an outcome measure. The Spanish versionof this measure will be used. This version was translated by Feixas et al. (2012) and has shown good psychometric properties in Spain (Trujillo et al. 2016) and Ecuador (Paz et al. 2020).

The CORE-10 (Barkham et al., 2013) is a generic, short, and easy-to-use assessment measure. Its items were drawn from the CORE-OM. The CORE-10 is an instrument that has shown good psychometric properties (Barkham et al., 2013) and is practical for use on a session-by-session basis with people presenting with psychological distress in mental health settings. Its Spanish version will be used (Feixas et al., 2012).

The YP-CORE is a brief self-report instrument capable of detecting psychological distress in adolescents, generated by a wide range of problems, while providing information about the person's general functioning (Twigg et al., 2009). It has 10 items, which must be answered on a 5-point scale (0 to 4). Its Spanish version will be used. The YP-CORE was translated to Spanish by Feixas et al. (2018) and showed adequate psychometric properties. In the present study, we will use a version of this measure adapted for Ecuador and Latin America whose psychometric properties are being explored.

It is a 10-point scale that asks respondents to rate their degree of satisfaction with life in the present. It will be presented in Spanish.

It is a 9-item scale that measures the level of ambivalence towards change perceived by the consultants. It includes two subscales, demoralization and oscillation, and an overall score of ambivalence towards change (Oliveira et al., 2020). Both the original version (Oliveira et al., 2020) and the Spanish version (Montesano et al., submitted for publication) have demonstrated good psychometric properties, including good convergent and divergent validity. In this study the Spanish version will be used.

It is a 15-item questionnaire with a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means "strongly disagree" and 5 means "strongly agree". It was designed to be completed by family members, aged 12 years or older (Stratton et al., 2010). It has three dimensions: strengths, difficulties and communication. Lower scores correspond to better family functioning. In addition, the SCORE-15 has two scales ranging from 1 to 10 on which participants rate the perceived effectiveness of the therapeutic intervention and the perceived severity of the difficulty leading to treatment. In the present study, we will use the Spanish version of this measure which has shown adequate reliability and validity in a Spanish sample (Rivas & Pereira, 2016).

The CRES-4 scale has 4 items: one question on satisfaction, one on the level of resolution of the main problem, one on the emotional state before the start of treatment and one question on the emotional state when completing the questionnaire (Feixas et al., 2012). These questions allow interpretations to be made about the perceived change in their emotional state, satisfaction and resolution of the problem. In this study, the Spanish version of this measure will be used (Feixas et al., 2012).

It is a 10-point one-item measure that evaluates therapeutic alliance. Clients are asked to state, in general, how connected they feel to their therapist and if they have talked about what the clients were interested in addressing in therapy. It will be presented in Spanish.

The CORE TAF is a pragmatic form designed to be filled out by therapists at baseline. The CORE-TAF includes referral information, sociodemographic data on the client, and data on the nature, severity, and duration of the client's problems. (Barkham et al., 2015; Evans 2003). We will use its Spanish version, which is currently being translated.

The CORE EoT is a pragmatic form designed to be filled out by therapists immediately after treatment completion. The CORE-EoT reports on the completed treatment, including the number of sessions, type of therapy, length and frequency of sessions, whether the ending was planned or unplanned, and the potential benefits of therapy (Barkham et al., 2015; Evans 2003). We will use its Spanish version, which is currently being translated.