Goal Attainment Scales GAS

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Goal Attainment Scales (GAS)
Presentation by MM Research and Evaluation
Associates
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Definition and Use

• Measures achievement of treatment or intervention
  goals.
• Can be used with persons with different kinds of
  treatment issues.
• Can be used with persons with different numbers
  of treatment goals.
• Produces a Goal Attainment Score (GAS) which
  allows you to track progress.

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Special Features of GAS

• Specifically measures only those symptoms,
  behaviors, feelings, skills, or achievements that
  the intervention is designed to change.
• GAS can serve to organize and focus treatment.
• Clarifies the aims of treatment.

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Utility of GAS

• Improved therapists conceptual basis and
  organization of treatment efforts.
• Improved clarity of treatment objectives for both
  therapists and clients.
• Facilitated client problem-solving efforts.
• Established realistic client and therapist
  expectations.
• Increased client satisfaction.
• Increased staff and client agreement and
  cooperation.
• Increased motivation for improvement.
• Improved therapy outcomes

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GAS Form
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Goal Area Selection

• First step involves selecting high priority goal
  areas.
• Identify areas where an undesirable set of
  behaviors should be minimized or where a
  favorable set of behaviors should be increased.
• Usually between 3 and 5 goal areas are
  identified.

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Expected Outcomes

• Start by identifying the most likely outcome.
  This should be what you reasonably expect from
  treatment.
• The middle level is the most probable level of
  goal attainment.
• This is the level that would indicate success in
  treatment.
• Is this outcome realistic?
• Is it relevant to the treatment goal?

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(Cont)

• Be careful not to set up goals that are too
  easily accomplished, or too difficult. Realistic
  expectations for outcomes should be used to
  accurately evaluate the program.
• The outcomes should be not be vague, they should
  be measurable and specific.
• Another staff person or committee should be
  utilized to double- check the realism and
  relevance of the goals.
• While the outcome does not have to quantified, it
  must be stated so that hypothetically two
  independent observers could agree on whether it
  has been obtained.

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Completing the scale

• Specify the somewhat more and somewhat less
  than expected levels of outcome next.
• Specify the much more and much less than
  expected levels of outcome last.
• Do not skip any levels.

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Common problems in scaling

• Use of jargon or technical language
• Vagueness
• Overlapping levels
• Gaps between levels
• Multidimensional scales
• Blank levels

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Goal setting and follow-up

• Goals should be set by therapists, intake worker,
  client, or collaborations of these.
• Ideally, the scales for the goals should be
  developed from scratch.
• In practice this is very time consuming and
  avoided.
• The use of a GAS bank can be helpful in scaling
  goals.
• Follow-up or posttest should be ideally be done
  by an independent third party. It should not be
  the person who provided the treatment or the
  goal-setter.
• Modifications of this may be possible if bias
  can be minimized.

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Scoring Goal Attainment Scales

• If you are working with clients with the same
  numbers of goals
• Each time you choose to measure goal attainment
  mark the box which indicates the clients current
  status.
• To obtain a GAS, simply add up the scores for
  each goal. Scores on each goal range from -2 to
  2 with 0 indicating treatment success.
• The total across all goals represents the GAS.

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• If you are comparing or collecting scores from a
  number of clients with different numbers of
  goals
• Obtain the GAS as previously instructed.
• You must convert the GAS into a standard score.
• Refer to the GAS conversion table on the
  following slide.
• Find the row which indicates a clients GAS and
  find the column which represents the clients
  number of goals.
• The standardized GAS score is where the row and
  column intersect.

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Goal Attainment Score Conversion Table
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Example 1
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Example 2
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Example 3