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Zhang Y, Larson M, Ehrhart MG, King K, Lyon AR, Locke J, Cook C. Inter-Organizational Alignment and Implementation Outcomes in Integrated Mental Healthcare for Children and Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study. RESEARCH SQUARE 2024:rs.3.rs-3745830. [PMID: 38260462 PMCID: PMC10802742 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3745830/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Background Integrated care involves care provided by a team of professionals, often in non-traditional settings. A common example worldwide is integrated school-based mental health (SBMH), which involves externally employed clinicians providing care at schools. Integrated mental healthcare can improve the accessibility and efficiency of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for vulnerable populations suffering from fragmented traditional care. However, integration can complicate EBP implementation due to overlapping organizational contexts, diminishing the public health impact. Emerging literature suggests that EBP implementation may benefit from the similarities in the implementation context factors between the different organizations in integrated care, which we termed inter-organizational alignment (IOA). This study quantitatively explored whether and how IOAs in general and implementation context factors are associated with implementation outcomes in integrated SBMH. Methods SBMH clinicians from community-based organizations (CBOs; nclinician=27) and their proximal student-support school staff (nschool=99) rated their schools and CBOs (clinician only) regarding general (organizational culture and molar climate) and implementation context factors (Implementation Climate and Leadership), and nine common implementation outcomes (e.g., treatment integrity, service access, acceptability). The levels of IOA were estimated by intra-class correlations (ICCs). We fitted multilevel models to estimate the standalone effects of context factors from CBOs and schools on implementation outcomes. We also estimated the 2-way interaction effects between CBO and school context factors (i.e., between-setting interdependence) on implementation outcomes. Results The IOA in general context factors exceeded those of implementation context factors. The standalone effects of implementation context factors on most implementation outcomes were larger than those of general context factors. Similarly, implementation context factors between CBOs and schools showed larger 2-way interaction effects on implementation outcomes than general context factors. Conclusions This study preliminarily supported the importance of IOA in context factors for integrated SBMH. The findings shed light on how IOA in implementation and general context factors may be differentially associated with implementation outcomes across a broad array of integrated mental healthcare settings.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Madeline Larson
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development
| | | | | | - Aaron R Lyon
- University of Washington Seattle Campus: University of Washington
| | - Jill Locke
- University of Washington Seattle Campus: University of Washington
| | - Clayton Cook
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development
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Lyon AR, Cook CR, Larson M, Hugh ML, Dopp A, Hamlin C, Reinke P, Bose M, Law A, Goosey R, Goerdt A, Morrell N, Wackerle-Hollman A, Pullmann MD. Protocol for a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial of a pragmatic individual-level implementation strategy for supporting school-based prevention programming. Implement Sci 2024; 19:2. [PMID: 38167046 PMCID: PMC10763475 DOI: 10.1186/s13012-023-01330-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND For approximately one in five children who have social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) challenges, accessible evidence-based prevention practices (EBPPs) are critical. In the USA, schools are the primary setting for children's SEB service delivery. Still, EBPPs are rarely adopted and implemented by front-line educators (e.g., teachers) with sufficient fidelity to see effects. Given that individual behavior change is ultimately required for successful implementation, focusing on individual-level processes holds promise as a parsimonious approach to enhance impact. Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools for Teachers (BASIS-T) is a pragmatic, multifaceted pre-implementation strategy targeting volitional and motivational mechanisms of educators' behavior change to enhance implementation and student SEB outcomes. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial designed to evaluate the main effects, mediators, and moderators of the BASIS-T implementation strategy as applied to Positive Greetings at the Door, a universal school-based EBPP previously demonstrated to reduce student disruptive behavior and increase academic engagement. METHODS This project uses a blocked randomized cohort design with an active comparison control (ACC) condition. We will recruit and include approximately 276 teachers from 46 schools randomly assigned to BASIS-T or ACC conditions. Aim 1 will evaluate the main effects of BASIS-T on proximal implementation mechanisms (attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, intentions to implement, and maintenance self-efficacy), implementation outcomes (adoption, reach, fidelity, and sustainment), and child outcomes (SEB, attendance, discipline, achievement). Aim 2 will examine how, for whom, under what conditions, and how efficiently BASIS-T works, specifically by testing whether the effects of BASIS-T on child outcomes are (a) mediated via its putative mechanisms of behavior change, (b) moderated by teacher factors or school contextual factors, and (c) cost-effective. DISCUSSION This study will provide a rigorous test of BASIS-T-a pragmatic, theory-driven, and generalizable implementation strategy designed to target theoretically-derived motivational mechanisms-to increase the yield of standard EBPP training and support strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05989568. Registered on May 30, 2023.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron R Lyon
- University of Washington, 6200 NE 74Th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA.
| | - Clayton R Cook
- Character Strong, 4227 S Meridian, Puyallup, WA, 98373, USA
| | | | - Maria L Hugh
- University of Kansas, 1122 W Campus Rd, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
| | - Alex Dopp
- RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA, 91604, USA
| | - Corinne Hamlin
- University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Peter Reinke
- University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Mahasweta Bose
- University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Amy Law
- University of Washington, 6200 NE 74Th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA
| | - Roger Goosey
- University of Washington, 6200 NE 74Th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA
| | - Annie Goerdt
- University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Nicole Morrell
- University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | | | - Michael D Pullmann
- University of Washington, 6200 NE 74Th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA
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Ahlers K, Hugh ML, Tagavi D, Eayrs C, Hernandez AM, Ho T, Locke J. "On an island by myself": implications for the inclusion of autistic students in self-contained classrooms in public elementary schools. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1241892. [PMID: 37829762 PMCID: PMC10566509 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1241892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Autistic students have limited access to inclusive classes and activities in their schools. Principals and special education teachers who directly teach and administer programs for autistic elementary students can offer critical insight into factors, such as educators' attitudes, that may impact inclusive opportunities in schools. These attitudes may serve as barriers to or facilitators of promoting an inclusive school setting. Methods Semi-structured interviews with 26 elementary school principals and 26 special education teachers explored their experiences implementing evidence-based practices for autistic students (pivotal response training, discrete trial training, and visual schedules) in 26 self-contained classrooms in the United States. Autism-specific culture and inclusion emerged as a theme, which was analyzed for this paper. Results An inductive approach to thematic analysis revealed principals' and special education teachers' perspectives regarding the "autism-specific culture" in the school, including attitudes towards and inclusion of autistic students in self-contained classrooms in the broader school environment. Analysis of text related to "autism-specific culture" detailed aspects of inclusion, factors (i.e., barriers and facilitators) affecting inclusion, principals' and special education teachers' attitudes towards autistic students placed in self-contained classrooms, attitudes of other school staff towards teachers in self-contained classrooms, and recommendations to support an inclusive school environment for autistic students. Discussion Results suggest that valuing "equal" access to classes and activities for autistic students in self-contained classrooms may not be sufficient for promoting an inclusive school environment, Educators may benefit from targeted strategies to facilitate inclusion. Strategies range from supporting educators' attitudes and knowledge of autism to shifting physical aspects of the school environment (e.g., location of classrooms). Additional implications for supporting the true inclusion (i.e., inclusion that goes beyond physical inclusion) involves of autistic students in self-contained classrooms schools are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlyn Ahlers
- Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States
| | - Maria L. Hugh
- Department of Special Education, School of Education, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States
| | - Daina Tagavi
- Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Curtis Eayrs
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Alyssa M. Hernandez
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Theodore Ho
- Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Jill Locke
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
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Choi SY, Rusch A, Lane A, Liebrecht C, Bilek EL, Eisenberg D, Andrews C, Perry M, Smith SN. Individual and organizational factors as predictors of early evidence-based practice adoption in Michigan high schools: Baseline data from an implementation trial. IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2023; 4:26334895231159429. [PMID: 37091540 PMCID: PMC10052498 DOI: 10.1177/26334895231159429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Adolescents increasingly access mental health services in schools. School mental health professionals (SPs; school counselors, social workers, etc.) can offer evidence-based mental health practices (EBPs) in schools, which may address access gaps and improve clinical outcomes. Although some studies have assessed factors associated with EBP adoption in schools, additional research focusing on SP- and school-level factors is warranted to support EBP implementation as SPs’ mental health delivery grows. Methods Baseline data were collected from SPs at Michigan high schools participating in a statewide trial to implement SP-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to students. Models examined factors associated with attitudes about EBPs, implementation climate, and implementation leadership, and their associations with CBT knowledge, training attendance, and pre-training CBT delivery. Results One hundred ninety-eight SPs at 107 schools (87%) completed a baseline survey. The mean Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) total score was 2.9, and school-aggregated mean scores of the Implementation Climate Scale (ICS) and Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) were 1.83 and 1.77, respectively, all on a scale ranging from 0 ( low) to 4 ( high). ICS and ILS scores were lower than typically reported in clinical settings, while EBPAS scores were higher. School characteristics were not significantly associated with EBPAS, ICS, or ILS scores, but scores did differ by SP role. Higher EBPAS scores were associated with more CBT knowledge (average marginal effect for 1 SD change [AME] = 0.15 points) and a higher probability of training completion (AME = 8 percentage points). Higher ICS scores were associated with a higher probability of pre-training CBT delivery (AME = 6 percentage points), and higher ILS scores were associated with higher probability of training completion (AME = 10 percentage points). Conclusions Our findings suggest that SPs’ attitudes toward EBPs and organizational support were positively associated with early signs of implementation success. As schools increasingly fill the adolescent mental healthcare access gap, efforts to strengthen both provider attitudes toward EBP and strategic organizational factors supporting EBP delivery will be key to encouraging EBP uptake in schools. Plain Language Summary Schools are an important setting in which adolescents receive mental healthcare. We need to better understand how to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) in this setting to improve student mental health. This study examined the attitudes and perceptions of school professionals (SPs) as key contributors to the implementation of a particular EBP, the delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in schools. The study found that implementation climate and leadership scores in participating schools were lower than scores typically reported in clinical settings, while scores for SP attitudes about EBP adoption were higher than typical scores in clinical settings. Results further suggest that SPs with more positive attitudes toward EBPs are more knowledgeable of CBT and more likely to complete a 1-day CBT training. We also found that higher implementation climate scores were associated with SPs reporting pre-training CBT delivery (although this association was not statistically significant), and more implementation leadership was associated with SPs completing the CBT training. These findings suggest that SP attitudes toward EBPs and organizational support in schools are positively associated with early signs of implementation success. Early, low-intensity efforts to (1) improve SP attitudes about mental health EBPs, and (2) increase schools’ support for implementation may scaffold more intensive implementation efforts in schools down the road.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seo Youn Choi
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Amy Rusch
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Annalise Lane
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Celeste Liebrecht
- Department of Learning Health Sciences, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Emily L. Bilek
- Department of Psychiatry, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Daniel Eisenberg
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Carolyn Andrews
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Morgan Perry
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Shawna N. Smith
- Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Seo Youn Choi, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, SPH II, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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