Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) is an approach grounded in a philosophy of a single, shared vision of helping people achieve their health and wellness goals as they navigate the complex systems of healthcare, child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, education, and others.
TCOM began with a simple premise: that helping systems should reflect our ability to support and elevate individuals and families through their experience of personal change and transformation.
What are the origins of TCOM?
Over forty years ago, Dr. John S. Lyons, a clinical psychologist and researcher, recognized the potential as well as the need for large administrative data sets that holistically measure the needs and strengths of people receiving help for their mental health challenges as well as the ability of professionals to care for these needs. The prevailing approach at the time was focused inward on satisfying the competing pressures inherent in the complex systems that administer care, leading towards an approach that sought to adapt the patient to the system rather than create a system that fits the patient. The first tool created to carry out this vision was the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS), introduced in 1999.
With the passage of time other tools were developed, including the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (ANSA), the Family Advocacy and Support Tool (FAST), Readiness Inventory for Successful Entrepreneurship (RISE) and the Crisis Assessment Tool (CAT), all of which are free for anyone to use through the John Praed Foundation. What became clear once data began being collected using a person-centric framework was that meaningful change depends on all parties involved (from children and families to policymakers, direct care professionals and data analysts) listening to, learning from, and exchanging with one another with the goal of providing care that is most appropriate to each individual’s needs, strengths, sociocultural context and personal goals.
The underlying philosophy that inspired the design of these tools became formally articulated as TCOM, and the Praed Foundation was founded to support its spread through a mass collaboration of individuals. This collective is united by a common desire to use evidence-based assessments as an approach to work together to maintain the focus of human service enterprise on the people that they serve.
For more information on the TCOM tools, visit the suite of tools on the TCOM TOOLS – Praed Foundation
TCOM's Reach and Impact:
More than 10 million people worldwide have been helped by over 150,000 professionals trained in one or more of the TCOM tools, on every continent except Antarctica. While its origins are in the United States, public agencies and private organizations have adapted the approach to fit contexts ranging from Italy to Singapore.
TCOM Guiding Values
- All assessments and interventions carried out in the name of providing care should be culturally responsive and respectful.
- Those receiving care should have both voice and choice with regards to participation in any assessment or intervention.
- All interventions should be personalized, respectful, and provide demonstrable benefit to the person being served.
- Collaborative processes, in which children and their families are parties, should inform decisions made at all levels within the system of care.
- A consensus on the course of action to be taken should be seen as the primary goal of these collaborative processes.
- Decision-making should always be informed by information about the individual being served and their personal trajectory of change.
- All work should be accomplished while respecting the Earth and remaining conscious of our impact on it.
TCOM Core Principles
Human-serving systems and enterprises:
- Should have as their primary mandate facilitation and support of personal change and transformation.
- Are inherently complex, have diverse aims and perspectives. These are best managed through meaningful integration of all who are involved by means of processes that are collaborative in nature.
- Should build partnerships that responsibly collect, manage and use accurate, relevant information while respecting the people they serve.