Development and Evaluation of Context Tailored Training

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of empirically-supported treatments for substance abuse disorders, although productive over the past twenty years, has not been accompanied by an equal effort in the transfer, or dissemination of such approaches to standard practice. Dissemination appears unlikely to occur without specific efforts, including the training of professional staff in new techniques. Yet little is known about what types of training efforts are effective for different types of interventions for substance abuse treatment professionals with varying clinical skills and experience. In response to PA-03-126, NIDA Behavioral Therapy Development Program, the proposed Phase III research will develop and evaluate an innovative model for the training of counselors working in agencies providing substance abuse treatment. Based on concepts of technology transfer, change in practice behavior is seen as more likely in response to training that is tailored to the individual's professional needs and accompanied by contextual processes that remind, reinforce, and support changes in clinical practice. Training must also involve assessment and consultation in partnership with agencies providing substance abuse services. A "Context Tailored" training model will be developed for skills in Motivational Interviewing (MI), a clinical approach that has strong empirical support and for which training is often requested. The model will be pilot tested in two agencies. After revision, the training model will then be compared to a traditional CPE workshop in a small randomized trial with six additional agencies. The new, context based model is expected to achieve greater acquisition, maintenance and generalization of specific MI skills compared to a traditional CPE workshop, as assessed in practice with actual patients. The proposed research is designed to provide standardization and preliminary data-based support for context-tailored training. If successful, subsequent proposals for research on a much larger scale can test training effectiveness across a broad range of agencies, personnel, and topics.