A Q&A with Michael Roeske, PsyD, Senior Director of Newport Healthcare’s Center for Research and Innovation
As a child, Michael Roeske was passionate about math. “I felt that there were patterns to be found everywhere, that everything could be measured and worked through equations, and therefore it was vitally important to study, understand, and apply those principles to theoretically everything,” he recalls. Life eventually drew him in the direction of social services and away from efforts to find objective truth and complete certainty in outcomes. But he never lost his respect for numbers and data and the potential power of analytics, as well as the constant pattern-seeking nature of humans.
With his appointment to Senior Director of Newport Healthcare’s Center for Research and Innovation, Dr. Roeske merged these passions and interests. A former clinical director and Chief Executive Officer, he moved from a focus on operations and direct patient care to a visionary role in which his knowledge, experience, and curiosity serve this important initiative promoting empirical values in mental healthcare.
In this Q&A, Dr. Roeske discusses the CRI’s purpose and goals, how it helps drive Newport’s mission, and what he finds most intriguing about this work.
Just Released—New Third-Party Outcomes Research on the Impact of Newport’s Treatment: The Science of Healing 2023
What insights can be gleaned from this year’s outcomes report?
The data continues to make it clear that many teens, young adults, and their families are living with very concerning situations—and, on the bright side, their decision to seek treatment leads to measurable positive change, during and after their time with us. Overall, the results of our third party–validated analysis show that our patients significantly benefit from the help we provide, develop strong working alliances with their family therapist, and are satisfied with their overall experience.
From a trend perspective, we did see indication that the acuity in our communities, which seemed to peak during the pandemic, is going down, while patients’ gains during treatment have continued to improve. Adding the perspective of parents, through post-discharge surveys, was a striking indication that the gains made in treatment appear to be maintained.
Why is research so important to Newport’s mission?
Millions of adolescents and young adults are impacted by mental health concerns each year, and that vast number is doubled and tripled by the number of caregivers and communities impacted. Given how important treatment can be, how pivotal these experiences are for so many individuals and families, and the severity of what we see as a crisis in adolescent and young adult mental health, there is surprisingly little research on outcomes—on what works and why.
Part of the reason is that human beings are almost incalculably complex physical, emotional, and social creatures. And figuring out what provides durable change in behavioral healthcare is just as complicated. Add to that the fact that we, as a profession, often rely upon anecdote, intuition, and personal preference in our work, and research and statistics can be intimidating and feel removed from the actual experience of sitting across the room from a person who is struggling.
The CRI is playing a role in changing that, while supporting Newport’s mission to provide results-driven, state-of-the-art care and to advance the field as a whole.
What are the origins of the CRI?
The CRI arose as a natural outgrowth of our partnership with third-party academic institutions to gather and analyze our outcomes data. We worked first with Vanderbilt University, and then with Drexel University’s Center for Family Intervention Science. It was while working with the latter that the possibilities and vision went from casual conversations about the need and possibilities of a research center to the conceptualization of what it might look like and how it would function.
These ideas fortuitously merged with the desire of leadership to utilize Newport’s resources and large data sets for the betterment of its services and, when possible, for the industry as a whole. And the result was the development of an independently operating research effort, which includes an openness to collaboration with other researchers and institutions. In addition, the scope was widened and now includes a broader range of aims and interests.
How does the work of the CRI benefit Newport’s clients and families as well as the behavioral healthcare industry overall?
On the micro level, our clinicians can access data regarding clients’ risk concerns and symptom reduction, and fold those insights back into their patients’ individualized care. The work of the CRI can also be used to help with staff development and competencies to better serve the needs of patients. The aggregate data sets and the patient profiles derived from our research also highlight what’s working and help guide strategic planning and resource utilization.
On the macro level, everything we learn by collecting, analyzing, and applying outcomes data can also help set new standards of quality for the industry. It also provides validation and ways to measure reliability of treatment services, and therefore supports relationships between treatment programs and accrediting organizations, licensing bodies, and insurance payers. This work can be generative and contribute to helping more young people find long-term, sustainable healing.
Do you see mental healthcare as a science, an art, or both?
I really see it as both. Each clinician, whether a Marriage and Family Therapist or a psychiatrist, has their own theories on mental health and develops their own way of being in the room with a patient, whereby instinct, preferences, and experience absolutely come into play. Beyond that, the patient is also unique and has their own history and reasons for being in treatment at that particular time. It is in this inter-subjective world in which they meet and try to understand and learn from each other. But much of what we sense and see cannot be easily measured or quantified and is very much impacted by this very human meeting between individuals. And how to best do that is an art.
Having said that, it is essential to have information to counterbalance biases, human limitations, and natural barriers to communicating with other professionals. This includes agreed-upon ways to measure what we are doing and produce outcomes data. And there is a dearth of that information. Indeed, the concept of seeking evidence for effective care has been prominent only since the 1990s, and that push was driven in part by the goal of remaining viable as psychopharmacology studies began to come out. The psychotherapy field, in particular, has been slow in establishing consistency and consensus. There is a gap here that the CRI can help fill, and we are positioned to help in this effort. This is the science of it.
What is most intriguing to you personally about the work of the CRI?
On an emotional level, I feel a personal responsibility to the teens, young adults, parents, and caregivers who seek our services. And part of that is because I am a parent myself. Becoming a parent changed my perspective on everything. My love for and fear for my children, and sometimes my frustration and sense of exhaustion, exceeds anything I could have imagined. When I listen to the stories from teens and young adults and their families, it can be profoundly heartbreaking and tragic, and other times, remarkably inspiring and uplifting. I can’t help but be impacted by it.
On a professional level, this work is replete with puzzle to solve and is always revealing some area of needed development or a gap in knowledge that needs to be addressed. From this perspective, it is quite rewarding and I feel productive and effective. Perhaps most importantly, though, to be a liaison between research and practice, to help guide the company in its mission, and to be able to contribute to staff development and growth, while adding to the body of knowledge in the field, is a profoundly rewarding and meaningful prospect.