Treatment processes in mental health care: what's going on?

Rose McCabe Mental health services research tends to focus on linking particular service configurations with patient outcomes. However, there is an unexplored „black box“ between service configuration and patient outcome. This „black box“ is how mental health care is delivered and what takes place in clinical practice. Complex mental health intervention studies are commonly criticized for being „black-box“ exercises: even if unequivocal outcomes are demonstrated, it is unclear which aspects of the intervention made the difference [1]. Moreover, understanding explanatory mechanisms in the delivery of treatment ma…