Increasing clinicians' EBT exploration and preparation behavior in youth mental health services by changing organizational culture with ARC.

OBJECTIVE

Clinician EBT exploration and preparation behavior is essential to the ongoing implementation of new EBTs. This study examined the effect of the ARC organizational intervention on clinician EBT exploration and preparation behavior and assessed the mediating role of organizational culture as a linking mechanism.

METHOD

Fourteen community mental health agencies that serve youth in a major Midwestern metropolis along with 475 clinicians who worked in those agencies, were randomly assigned to either the three-year ARC intervention or control condition. Organizational culture was assessed with the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure at baseline and follow-up. EBT exploration and preparation behavior was measured as clinician participation in nine separate community EBT workshops held over a three-year period.

RESULTS

There was 69 percent greater odds (OR = 1.69, p < .003) of clinicians in the ARC condition (versus control) attending each subsequent workshop. Workshop attendance in the control group remained under two percent and declined over three years while attendance in the ARC condition grew from 3.6 percent in the first workshop to 12 percent in the ninth and final workshop. Improvement in proficient organizational culture mediated the positive effect of the ARC intervention on clinicians' workshop attendance (a × b = .21; 95% CI:LL = .05, UL = .40).

CONCLUSIONS

Organizational interventions that create proficient mental health agency cultures can increase clinician EBT exploration and preparation behavior that is essential to the ongoing implementation of new EBTs in community youth mental health settings.