HIV case managers’ attitudes toward empirically supported interventions

ABSTRACT

Although empirically supported interventions (ESIs) have become increasingly important in social work practice, there is limited empirical research on HIV/AIDS case managers’ attitudes toward using these interventions in their work. The Evidence-Based Practice Attitudes Scale (EBPAS) was administered to a sample of HIV case managers (N = 79) who reported moderate attitudes toward adopting ESIs. The majority of respondents received their primary training to work with people with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) on the job. Our sample indicated that ESIs would be more appealing if case managers had adequate training to implement them. Group differences in attitudes were identified between male and female case managers and between more-experienced and less-experienced case managers. It is important to provide HIV case managers with ongoing on-the-job training in ESIs and, moreover, to educate these providers about the rationale and importance of adopting ESIs so their clients can receive the best services available.

KEYWORDS:

• EBPAS
• empirically supported interventions
• empirically supported treatments
• evidence-based practice
• HIV case management

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Vincent Lynch, MSW, PhD, for graciously permitting our use of the attendee list of the Annual National Conference on Social Work and HIV/AIDS, and Gregory A. Aarons for permitting our use of the EBPAS. We also wish to thank Nicholas Neujahr, Deborah Gopstein, and Kristin Gossett for their assistance in preparation of this manuscript.