Training Family Physicians to Treat Families: Unexpected Compliance Problems

In this study, general practitioners participated in a brief and intensive program developed to train them in a systems-oriented approach to family treatment. The family physicians and research staff agreed that following the training program, five families would be selected from each practice, treated by their physicians, and followed by the research staff as part of a treatment outcome study. Results suggest that: 1) the pool of appropriate cases for such studies may be much smaller than expected; and 2) while the physicians found the training useful, they were not able to recruit families into the treatment outcome study. The latter result is very similar to that of a previous study. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.