Adolescent Co-occurring Disorders Treatment: Clinicians' Attitudes, Values, and Knowledge

Abstract

This study examined community-based clinicians’ (N = 294) attitudes, background/experiences, values, and knowledge relating to issues of co-occurring disorders, which occur at a high rate among adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system. Study results reveal that clinicians self-rate their clinical values and attitudes at or above the expected level of competency, but they concede that their skill and knowledge levels are not adequate. Comparison measures reveal that employment setting conditions, geographic region, hours worked per week, and strongly held convictions about the importance of integrated mental health and substance use disorders service delivery distinguish clinicians’ co-occurring disorders knowledge levels. Implications are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• attitudes
• clinician knowledge
• co-occurring disorders
• juvenile justice
• mental health
• therapist effectiveness
• values

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant funding from the University of Nevada Las Vegas President's Research Award and the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services Child and Adolescent State Infrastructure Grant (CA-SIG) which was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (USDHHS-SAMHSA). The authors wish to thank all of the individuals who devoted their time and talent to the research efforts that supported the development of this article, including: Alicia Crowther, Scott Schapiro, Stacey Cramer, Taneasha Evans, Matt Gyger, Dr. Mary Ann Overcamp-Martini, and Dr. An-Pyng Sun.

Notes

^a This value is a percentage-point competency score and is based on a 100-point scale.

Note. Use of bold text represents those test items for which the score was below 70% correct.