Provider Follow-Up Data: Reflections on the UBI

Provider Follow-Up Data: Reflections on the UBI

Being asked about their trauma histories has the potential to create negative reactions among clients (SAMHSA, 2014a). Treatment providers are, therefore, sometimes apprehensive to administer assessments that ask clients about trauma histories (SAMHSA, 2014b). What’s different about the UBI is that it focuses on current behavior—what clients are doing these days, rather than what has happened to them in the past. In this way, it can provoke less anxiety than many of the tools used in treatment, for both client and treatment provider.

Posted in UBI
Measuring Improved Safety

Measuring Improved Safety

The Unsafe Behaviors Inventory (UBI) asks clients to self-report how often they are currently engaging in various unsafe behaviors (e.g., fighting, overeating, using substances, etc). There are 66 behaviors listed in total, including an additional field for clients to describe other behaviors they consider unsafe. Clients use a scale (see Figure 1) to indicate the frequency of each behavior, ranging from “Never” (scored as 0) to “Several times a day” (scored as 12). When the client completes the UBI online, a cumulative “score” is automatically generated, summing all of the client’s responses. The lowest possible score on the tool is 0, and the total possible is 792. The point is not to get to zero, necessarily, but to mark progress as a reduction in each client’s cumulative score.

Posted in UBI