CelestHealth Behavioral Health Measure Instruments

The Benefits

• The CHS-MH instruments quickly assess mental health in less than 2 minutes.
• The CHS-MH monitors psychotherapy outcomes across sessions, displaying color-coded data points that indicate four mental health levels.
• Clinician testimonies and benchmarked research findings indicate that the CHS-MH improves psychotherapy outcomes.
• As demonstrated in research studies, the CHS can identify--at the first session--clients who are at risk to do poorly in psychotherapy.

The Instruments

• The CelestHealth System is unique because its instruments are based on the phase model of mental health change. The model proposes that improvement in mental health occurs in three progressive, sequential stages across psychotherapy sessions. First, the client obtains a greater sense of well-being with increased optimism and hope. For the second phase, specific symptoms such as panic attacks, depressive thinking, and binge eating diminish. Finally, with entry into the third phase, life functioning improves, for example, at work or school, as a parent and partner, and in life enjoyment. The phase model has been validated in several research studies.
• Using 20 items, the Behavioral Measure-20 (BHM-20) assesses mental health in less than 2 minutes and may be used at each counseling session. It includes the following scales:
  • Well-Being (Distress, Life Satisfaction, Motivation).
  • Symptoms (Alcohol/Drug Abuse, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Eating Disorder, Panic Disorder, Risk of Violence, Suicidality).
  • Life Functioning (Work/School, Intimate Relationships, Social Relationships, Life Enjoyment).
• Providing a more extensive assessment of mental health, the Behavioral Measure-43 (BHM-43) takes less than 4 minutes to complete. It is a more comprehensive version of the BHM-20; additional components of BHM-43 are highlighted in italics below. The following scales are included in the instrument:
  • Well-Being Scale assesses distress, emotional well-being, life satisfaction, and energy/motivation.
  • Symptoms Scale evaluates the major mental health syndromes including anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, drug/alcohol abuse, hostility, obsessive-compulsive, eating disorder, panic disorder, psychoticism, sleep disturbance, somatization, suicidality, and risk of violence
  • Life Functioning Scale measures life functioning in the relevant areas--work, school, family, life enjoyment, intimate relationships, social relationships, sexual functioning, physical health, self-management, and money management
• At the first session, the Psychotherapy Readiness Scale alerts whether the client is at risk to do poorly in psychotherapy. It contains 5 items and takes about 30 seconds to complete. The reliability and validity of the Psychotherapy Readiness Scale has been demonstrated in research.
• Therapeutic Bond Scale evaluates the quality of the relationship between the psychotherapist and client across sessions. The Therapeutic Bond Scale contains 6 items and takes 30 seconds to complete.

The Features

• The Suicide Monitoring Scale (SMS), developed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Counseling Center, reliably assesses suicidality using a color-coded matrix methodology. Additionally, level of care recommendations based on four risk levels (no risk, low, moderate, high) are provided by the SMS. The SMS has been shown in published research to be more effective in identifying suicidality than a clinician’s interview.
• The Behavioral Health Profile (BHP) features a color-coded profile of the client’s mental health based on the CHS-MH scales and subscales. It takes only a few seconds for the clinician and client to view the profile and quickly understand the mental health status of the client. The BHP features four mental health levels—normal, mild distress, moderate distress, severe distress.
• The Outcomes Profile is available to the center’s administrators. This comprehensive report provides outcomes data for all clients at the center. It includes, for example, the number and percentage of clients recovered, improved, deteriorated, and showing no change.

All CelestHealth instruments are electronic and can be used together or independently in a variety of combinations.

Behavioral Health Measure-10® (BHM-10®)

For sites that don’t have computer infrastructure, Point and Click and CelestHealth Solutions are offering the Behavioral Health Measure-10® (BHM-10®) instrument at no charge. It can be downloaded here: BHM-10