Comparing Client Outcomes for Two Evidence-Based Treatment Consultation Strategies

Area of Science:

• Clinical Psychology
• Implementation Science
• Child Psychiatry

Background:

• Posttraining expert consultation is vital for scaling evidence-based treatments.
• Live coaching is effective but difficult to implement in field settings.
• Telephone consultation is a less effective substitute for live coaching.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare client outcomes using telephone consultation versus live video coaching for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).
• To evaluate the efficacy of different doses of posttraining expert consultation strategies.
• To assess the scalability and retention of treatment efficacy in real-world settings.

Main Methods:

• A roll-out experimental design was used across 30 agencies in two states.
• 80 therapists and 330 cases receiving PCIT were involved.
• Client outcomes were compared across varying doses of telephone consultation and live video coaching.

Main Results:

• Child behavior problems significantly decreased, showing about a 1 standard deviation improvement in 14 sessions.
• Increased therapist use of live video consultations augmented symptom improvement.
• Telephone consultation dose showed no association with client-level outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) benefits are retained when scaled to field settings.
• Live video consultation offers significant advantages over telephone consultation for therapist support.
• This study supports live video coaching as a key component of scalable evidence-based treatment implementation.