Teaching community program clinicians motivational interviewing using expert and train-the-trainer strategies

Area of Science:

• Addiction Treatment Research
• Clinical Psychology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based practice for behavior change.
• Effective training strategies are crucial for disseminating MI to clinicians.
• Community treatment programs require scalable and effective training methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of expert-led (EX) and train-the-trainer (TT) strategies against self-study (SS) for teaching MI to clinicians.
• To evaluate the impact of different training modalities on MI adherence and competence.

Main Methods:

• Randomized controlled trial involving 92 clinicians across 12 community treatment programs in Connecticut.
• EX and TT groups received skill-building workshops and monthly supervision; SS group received only training materials.
• Assessments of MI adherence, competence, and performance standards were conducted at multiple time points.

Main Results:

• Both EX and TT strategies significantly enhanced clinician MI adherence and competence compared to SS.
• A higher percentage of clinicians in EX and TT conditions met clinical trial standards for MI performance.
• Minimal differences were observed between the expert-led and train-the-trainer approaches.

Conclusions:

• Workshops combined with supervision are effective for training community clinicians in MI.
• The train-the-trainer approach offers a feasible and effective strategy for disseminating evidence-based treatments.
• These findings support the scalability of MI training in real-world clinical settings.