Managed care is a frequently discussed and debated topic among mental health professionals. Managed care organizations encourage short-term, brief therapy and mandate the use of evidence-based practices. Using the Argosy University online library resources, locate one peer-reviewed journal article that describes the use of brief or solution-focused therapy with a client or population of interest to you. Post your article as an attachment in the Discussion Area.
Tasks:
In a minimum of 200 words, post to the Discussion Area your response to the following:
- Summarize the article you selected by describing:
- The purpose of the article
- The client/population mentioned in the article
- How brief or solution-focused therapy was used with the client/population
- The outcomes/results of the use of brief or solution-focused therapy
- Looking through the lens of managed care, describe how counselors, clients, and managed care organizations benefit from brief or solution-focused therapy.
- Looking through the same lens, provide an argument to managed care organizations that describe the disadvantages associated with the use of brief or solution-focused therapy.
- Further explain what you perceive to be the main advantages and disadvantages of managed care. Be sure to elaborate rather than regurgitate the material covered in the module and assigned readings.
- Explain how the learning from this module will contribute to your professional growth as a new counselor-in-training.
- Your discussion should clearly reflect your thoughtful and logical analysis of the information.
Support your rationale and analysis by using at least two resources from professional literature in your response. Professional literature may include peer-reviewed journal articles you can access through the Argosy University online library; relevant textbooks; and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (websites ending in .edu or .gov).
Be sure to read all of your classmates’ original posts and respond to more than two of your classmates’ posts. Your responses should be substantive, meaning they should encourage further dialogue and discussion, encourage your classmates to think about other aspects of the topic, compare your response to your classmates’ responses, or ask a relevant question, to better assist you with your understanding. Responses such as “I like/I agree” or “I don’t like/I don’t agree” are not complete enough.
Your discussion posts and all written assignments should reflect graduate-level writing skills and appropriate use of APA style, including in-text citations and references.
Submission Details:
- By the due date assigned, post your responses to the Discussion Area.
- Through the end of the module, respond to more than two of your classmates’ posts. While responding, critique the relevance of the article selected by your classmates. Describe how your understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of brief or solution-focused therapy is similar to or different from their understanding. Be sure to mention any aspect in your classmates’ posts that you had not thought about previously as relating to managed care.
Grading CriteriaMaximum PointsQuality of initial posting, including fulfillment of assignment instructions8Quality of responses to classmates6Frequency of responses to classmates2Reference to supporting readings and other materials2Language and grammar2Total:20
