Effects of Workshop Trainings on Practice Element Utilization among Therapists in a Youth Public Mental Health System

ABSTRACT

Recent research has suggested that modular approaches to treatment and training may be useful for helping to balance the prescriptive nature of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and the need for flexible implementation within community mental health. The present investigation had two overarching foci within the context of a public sector modular therapy training initiative on various practice elements: to examine the extent to which community therapists appropriately applied and failed to apply treatment techniques focused on at these trainings. Longitudinal, archival data from community mental health providers (n = 47) who participated in a series of state-sponsored anxiety and/or disruptive behavior workshops in modular approaches to EBPs for youth in Hawaii was examined. Longitudinal fixed-effect analyses focused on average rates of change in therapists’ EBP utilization were examined following their workshop attendance. Results indicated that time, client's age, training attendance, and therapist specific technique knowledge were significant predictors of technique utilization rates. However, therapists’ attitudes toward EBPs were not a significant predictor. Therapists self-reported increases for their appropriate utilization of the anxiety trained techniques following the anxiety training, yet decreased in their self-reported appropriate use of disruptive behavior techniques after the disruptive behavior training. These results potentially suggest that the effects of training on specific technique implementation are moderated by a variety of factors, including the type of problem area addressed at the training. Study limitations and implications for EBP dissemination and implementation are further discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ As part of the larger, longitudinal study therapists were given a battery of measures to complete before and after trainings. The measures included were the KEBSQ, EBPAS, MPAS, and a background history questionnaire. The measures were completed once at the beginning of the training day and once at the end of the training day.

² For ease of interpretability and discussion, the terms “appropriately apply” will be used to for “true-positive” and “failed to appropriately apply” will be used for “false-negative.”