Application of Evidence-Based Treatment in Community Mental Health Settings: Examining EBT Delivery Duration and Client Discharge.

Characterizing community mental health (CMH) treatment duration and discharge is an important step toward understanding how to better meet client needs. This report describes patterns of treatment duration and discharge among clinicians participating in a state-funded evidence-based treatment (EBT) training initiative. After training and consultation, clinicians (N = 376) reported on treatment duration and discharge for their "most complete case." On average, clinicians delivered 12.4 sessions (SD = 5.1) of the treatment. After completing treatment, half of clinicians (58.7%) continued with regularly scheduled therapy, either using EBT elements or switching to supportive therapy. Clinicians who continued with regularly scheduled therapy delivered treatment in approximately the same number of sessions. Results revealed that CMH clinicians often do not discontinue therapy after completing a treatment protocol. These findings suggest it may be essential to better understand clinician decision-making around applying EBTs to their caseloads.