Appointment Letters & Focused Therapies – Thinking Outside the Box

"When we speak of improving the quality of mental health care, we often think about cutting-edge innovation – wearables, virtual reality, genetics, to name a few things.

This week, there are two selections. Both discuss innovations aimed at improving care – but neither could be considered particularly “cutting edge.”

In the first selection, researchers sought to improve outpatient appointment attendance with a decidedly low-tech idea: appointment letters reminding patients of the importance of follow up. Spoiler alert: it worked.

In the second selection, drawn from The New York Times, reporter Andrea Petersen discusses clinics that use a short, intense version of CBT.

Together, these two selections illustrate some thinking outside the box."

Read more of Dr. Gratzer's blog post here.