A Modified Measurement-Based Care Approach to Improve Mental Health Treatment Engagement Among Racial and Ethnic Minoritized Youth

Despite high levels of need, racial and ethnic minoritized (REM) youth are much less likely than their White peers to engage in mental health treatment. Concerns about treatment relevance and acceptability and poor therapeutic alliance have been shown to impact treatment engagement, particularly retention, among REM youth and families. Measurement-based care (MBC) is a client-centered practice of collecting and using clientreported progress data throughout treatment to informshared decision-making.MBC has been associatedwith increased client involvement in treatment, improved client–provider communication, and increased satisfaction with treatment services. Despite its promise as a treatment engagement strategy, MBC has not been studied in this capacity with REMyouth or systematically modified to address the needs of culturally-diverse populations. In this article, we propose a culturally-modified version ofMBC, Strategic Treatment Assessment with Youth (STAY), to improve treatment engagement among REM youth and families. Specifically, STAY is designed to target perceptual barriers to treatment to improve treatment retention and ultimately, client outcomes. The four STAYcomponents (i.e., Introduce, Collect, Share, and Act) are based on an existingMBC practice framework and modified to address perceptual barriers to treatment among REM youth. The clinical application of this model is presented via a case example.