Evidence-Based Outcomes

Prove your programs work. Not just that they happened.

You already track services delivered and clients served. Evidence-Based Outcomes reports show what changed for those clients, using the same research-backed assessments funders and accreditors already trust.

Every one of these reports is included with Community CareLink. They come to life the moment your staff begin documenting a standardized assessment.

17 outcome reports across mental health, substance use, resilience, children and families, and self-sufficiency, all included with Community CareLink.

PHQ-9 Depression Severity Report

Real report · demo agency
37clients with a first and a latest PHQ-9 in the quarter
13.43 → 8.59average score, Moderate to Mild
78%of clients improved
Captured from a Community CareLink demonstration agency. Your report is built from your agency's own assessments.
Why it matters

Activity counts tell people what you did. Outcomes tell them it worked.

Win and keep funding

Grant applications and renewals increasingly ask for validated, standardized outcome measures. A before-and-after report built on the PHQ-9 or the Self-Sufficiency Questionnaire answers that question in a form reviewers recognize instantly.

"Of 37 clients with a first and a latest PHQ-9 this quarter, 78% improved. The average score fell from 13.43 (Moderate) to 8.59 (Mild)."

Catch who is not improving, sooner

A re-administered assessment is an early-warning system. When a client's score stalls or climbs, staff can adjust the plan while there is still time, instead of learning at discharge.

The client-level detail view lists every person whose latest score is worse than their first, with links straight to their record.

Know which programs deliver

Filter any report by program, date range, and client demographics. Compare cohorts. Spot the program model that consistently moves the needle and make the case to expand it.

Every report exports its underlying rows, so your evaluator or board gets the numbers behind the chart.
How it works

Three steps. No new software, no data entry twice.

Outcome reports read the assessment forms your staff complete inside a client's record. Document the form, and the report fills itself in.

Choose one standardized assessment

Pick the instrument that matches what your program is trying to change. Depression? PHQ-9. Substance use? DAST-10. Housing and income stability? Self-Sufficiency Questionnaire.

Start small. One instrument, one program, is enough to produce a credible outcome story within a quarter.

Administer it at intake, then again

Staff complete the form in the client's record at intake and repeat it at set points: 30, 60, or 90 days, and at discharge. Two data points per client is all a before-and-after report needs.

Most take under 5 minutes. The PHQ-9 is 9 questions. The GAD-7 is 7. The Brief Resilience Scale is 6.

Open the report

In Community CareLink, open Reports and choose Evidence-Based Outcomes. Each report shows your population's score distribution, the before-and-after change for clients with two or more assessments, and a client-level detail list.

Filter and export. Slice by program, date, race, gender, or age, then export the rows for your grant report or evaluator.
What you get

Every report answers the same three questions.

Where does our population stand, who changed and by how much, and which clients need attention. These are real screens from a CCL demo agency. Click any one to see it full size.

Before and after, in plain language First-to-latest change for every client with two scores, charted per domain or severity band, then translated into sentences like "Level up: Vulnerable to Safe, 78% of clients improved."
Your whole population, with demographics Score distribution against the instrument's published bands or reference sample, broken out by race, gender, and age so you can show who you serve and how equitably outcomes land.
Client-level detail you can act on One row per client: first score, latest score, change, and outcome, sorted so "Not Improved" surfaces first. Filter by program or demographics, choose columns, and export to CSV for your evaluator.
The assessments

What do you want to be able to say your program changed?

Every instrument below is a published, validated measure with an outcome report already built into CCL. Pick the outcome, then the tool.

Mental health symptoms

Depression, anxiety, trauma, and mood. Lower scores are better.

PHQ-9

Patient Health Questionnaire, depression

The most widely used depression screen in primary and behavioral health. Nine questions map directly to diagnostic criteria, so clinicians and funders both trust it.

Length
9 items, about 3 min
Score
0–27
Bands
Minimal / Mild / Moderate / Mod. severe / Severe
Best for
Counseling, residential, integrated care

Report shows severity-band shift and average score change, intake to latest.

Included with Community CareLink

GAD-7

Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale

The anxiety companion to the PHQ-9, and just as quick. Pairing the two gives a rounded picture of a client's mental health in under 5 minutes.

Length
7 items, about 2 min
Score
0–21
Bands
Minimal / Mild / Moderate / Severe
Best for
Any program with a counseling component

Same layout as the PHQ-9 report, so staff learn one and know both.

Included with Community CareLink

PCL-5

PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, trauma severity

The standard for measuring post-traumatic stress symptoms. Its published thresholds for reliable and clinically meaningful change let you say more than "scores went down."

Length
20 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–80
Bands
Below / at / above the probable-PTSD threshold
Best for
Trauma-informed and violence-recovery programs

Report flags each client's change as reliable (5–10 points) or clinically meaningful (more than 10).

Included with Community CareLink

DASS-21

Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales

One short form, three separate outcomes. Useful when you want to show stress reduction alongside mood, for example in caregiver or re-entry programs.

Length
21 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–42 on each of 3 scales
Scales
Depression, Anxiety, Stress
Best for
Programs targeting stress as well as mood

Report tracks all three scales side by side, before and after.

Included with Community CareLink

Licensed

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II)

Depression severity

A clinical-grade depression inventory with decades of research behind it. Choose it when your clinicians already use Beck instruments or your funder names it.

Length
21 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–63
Bands
Minimal / Mild / Moderate / Severe
Best for
Clinical mental health programs

Report mirrors the PHQ-9 layout with Beck's severity bands.

Included with Community CareLink

Licensed

Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

Anxiety severity

The anxiety counterpart to the BDI-II. Focuses on physical and cognitive anxiety symptoms over the past week.

Length
21 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–63
Bands
Minimal / Mild / Moderate / Severe
Best for
Clinical mental health programs

Report mirrors the BDI-II layout with Beck's anxiety bands.

Included with Community CareLink

Burns Mood Survey

Six-part mood and relationship inventory

Tracks depression, anxiety, panic, anger, suicidal urges, and relationship satisfaction in one form. Well suited to therapy programs that want a session-to-session picture.

Scales
6 subscales
Direction
Lower is better, except Relationship Satisfaction
Best for
Outpatient therapy, couples and family work
Frequency
Often every session

Report shows first-to-last average change on each subscale.

Included with Community CareLink

Substance use & recovery

Screening, readiness to change, and the resources that sustain recovery.

DAST-10

Drug Abuse Screening Test

Ten yes-or-no questions that place a client in one of five involvement levels. Quick enough for intake, sensitive enough to show movement at follow-up.

Length
10 items, about 5 min
Score
0–10, lower is better
Bands
None / Low / Moderate / Substantial / Severe
Best for
SUD treatment, recovery housing, courts

Report counts clients who moved to a lower involvement level.

Included with Community CareLink

SOCRATES

Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness

Measures whether a client recognizes a problem, feels ambivalent about it, and is taking steps to change. Ideal for showing progress before abstinence outcomes appear.

Length
19 items, about 5 min
Scales
Recognition, Ambivalence, Taking Steps
Direction
Recognition and Taking Steps up, Ambivalence down
Best for
Early-engagement and motivational programs

Report applies the published rule for a sustained shift toward change.

Included with Community CareLink

URICA-32

University of Rhode Island Change Assessment

The classic stages-of-change measure. Scores across precontemplation, contemplation, action, and maintenance combine into a single readiness score.

Length
32 items, about 10 min
Output
Readiness score, 3 bands
Direction
Higher readiness is better
Best for
Treatment courts, pre-treatment engagement

Report shows movement between readiness bands, intake to latest.

Included with Community CareLink

MIRC

Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital

Measures the social, physical, human, and cultural resources a person can draw on to sustain recovery. A strengths-based complement to symptom screens.

Length
28 items, about 10 min
Score
28–112, higher is better
Domains
Social, Physical, Human, Cultural
Best for
Peer recovery, recovery community organizations

Report compares your population to the published validation sample by domain.

Included with Community CareLink

Resilience & wellbeing

Strengths-based measures where higher scores are better.

Brief Resilience Scale (BRS)

Ability to bounce back from stress

Six questions, two minutes. The fastest way to add a strengths-based outcome to any program, from job readiness to housing.

Length
6 items, about 2 min
Score
1.00–5.00 average
Bands
Low / Normal / High resilience
Best for
Any program, any population

Report shows the share of clients who reached Normal or High resilience.

Included with Community CareLink

Licensed

CD-RISC-25

Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale

A deeper resilience measure used in hundreds of published studies. Choose it when a funder or research partner asks for the CD-RISC by name.

Length
25 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–100
Bands
Lower / Moderate / Higher resilience
Best for
Trauma recovery, veterans, research partnerships

Report shows band shift and average change, first to latest.

Included with Community CareLink

Children & families

Youth-appropriate measures and the family-history screen that shapes care.

Children's Hope Scale

Ages 8–16, goal-directed thinking

Six child-friendly questions measuring a young person's belief that they can reach their goals and find ways around obstacles. Hope predicts school and health outcomes.

Length
6 items, about 3 min
Score
6–36, higher is better
Scales
Agency, Pathways
Best for
Mentoring, after-school, youth counseling

Report shows hope-band shift plus each subscale's average change.

Included with Community CareLink

SDQ

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, ages 4–17

The leading brief behavioral screen for children, completed by a parent, teacher, or the young person. Covers emotional, conduct, attention, and peer difficulties plus prosocial strengths.

Length
25 items, 5–10 min
Score
0–10 on each of 5 scales
Direction
Difficulties down, Prosocial up
Best for
Family services, school-based programs

Report tracks every subscale before and after with published banding.

Included with Community CareLink

ACE Questionnaire

Adverse Childhood Experiences

A ten-question history of childhood adversity. It is a snapshot, not a before-and-after measure, but it lets you describe the population you serve and justify trauma-informed programming.

Length
10 items, about 5 min
Score
0–10 adversities
Bands
0 / 1–3 / 4 or more
Best for
Intake in any trauma-informed program

Report profiles your population's exposure by band, race, and gender.

Included with Community CareLink

Self-sufficiency

Whole-life stability for housing, employment, and social-service programs.

Self-Sufficiency Questionnaire

Life-domain stability matrix

Rates a household across housing, employment, income, food, health, education, and other life domains, from crisis to thriving. The outcome measure of choice for housing, re-entry, and family-support programs.

Length
One rating per domain, about 10 min
Output
Domain scores and overall average, higher is better
Frequency
Intake, quarterly, exit
Best for
Housing, workforce, case management

Two reports: a population overview and a before-and-after client comparison by domain.

Included with Community CareLink

No assessments match that filter.

About licensing. Most instruments above are free to use. The Beck inventories and the CD-RISC are copyrighted and require a license your agency holds with the publisher. CCL supplies the report; your agency is responsible for the right to administer the instrument.

Growing library

Don't see the instrument your program uses?

This library is growing. We listen to our agencies and respond to new requests for evidence-based outcomes reporting based on demand.

If your program relies on a clinically validated assessment that is not listed here, ask us to add it. We build the form, the scoring, and the outcome report to the publisher's specification, so your staff document it once and the results flow into the same before-and-after reporting you see in the examples.

How a request works

  1. Tell us the instrument. Name the assessment, its publisher, and what you want to be able to report on.
  2. We scope it. We confirm the scoring rules and any licensing your agency needs to hold, then quote the work.
  3. We build and release it. The form and its outcome report appear in your account, ready for intake.

Cost. A one-time fee may apply when a new evidence-based outcomes report is added.

To request one, contact us with the instrument name and its publisher. Current agencies can also ask their Community CareLink representative.

Make it routine

Outcomes come from rhythm, not heroics.

The agencies with the strongest outcome reports did not add staff. They picked a cadence and built it into existing touchpoints.

IntakeComplete the assessment as part of enrollment. This is the "before."
30 to 90 daysRe-administer at a natural check-in: a plan review, a housing inspection, a court date.
DischargeComplete it one last time. Every client now has a story with a beginning and an end.
QuarterlyOpen the report, filter to the quarter, export, and drop the numbers into your board or funder update.
  • Check that the form is on your agency's form listIf you cannot find it when documenting a client, ask the Community CareLink support team to enable it. There is no charge for the standard library forms.
  • Name a follow-up triggerTie the repeat assessment to something that already happens, such as the 90-day plan review, so nobody has to remember it.
  • Talk about the score with the clientSharing "your anxiety score went from 16 to 9" is a powerful clinical moment, and it makes the next assessment feel worthwhile to both of you.
  • Look at the report monthly, even when it is smallA report with 12 clients still shows who is stalling. Waiting for a big sample means waiting to act.
  • Put one outcome sentence in your next funder update"Between January and June, 68% of clients screened twice on the GAD-7 improved by at least one severity band." Reviewers remember sentences like that.

Your next grant report could open with an outcome.

Every report here is included with Community CareLink. Pick one assessment, start documenting it at intake, and the story writes itself.

Already a Community CareLink agency? You will find this guide and every report under Reports › Evidence-Based Outcomes.

Community CareLink · Evidence-Based Outcomes · Instrument details reflect each publisher's scoring guidance as implemented in Community CareLink reports. Report examples show demonstration data, not a real agency.

Report

Captured from a Community CareLink demonstration agency. Client identifiers shown are demo records.