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Supervision plays a key role in the provision of health and human services. An extensive literature exists on supervision as an element of professional development in behavioral health care. However, much less attention has been given to the practice of supervision in publicly funded systems of care for persons with mental and substance use conditions. This article provides a comprehensive review of the literature on supervision in the public sector, highlighting its current status, definition, functions, competencies, applicable standards and requirements, training approaches, and outcomes. Recommended strategies for restoring and advancing supervision as an essential practice in systems of care are discussed.

Training in supervisory competencies is essential to effective clinical practice and helps address the current national crisis in the behavioral health workforce. Interactional supervision, the approach used in the current study, is well established in clinical social work and focuses the task of the supervisee on the interpersonal exchanges encountered in clinical practice. This study examines the feasibility of supervisory competency training and associated gains in competencies among 81 clinical supervisors. Three types of competencies are assessed before and after training and at a 3-month follow-up—managing supervisory relationships, managing job performance, and promoting professional development. The results show that competency training is a feasible and potentially effective approach and is associated with supervisor satisfaction and stress management. The training employed is compatible with skills-based and intervention-specific supervisor training common among evidence-based treatments and is appropriate for use with clinical social workers, counseling and clinical psychologists, and psychiatric nurses.

The paucity of research investigating the effectiveness of universal behavioral strategies for supporting students in alternative educational settings is of great concern. However, a growing literature base supporting schoolwide positive behavioral support interventions (SWPBS) has been encouraging. This program evaluation provides additional support for this literature, indicating a positive impact of SWPBS Tier 1 implementation on key student outcome measures in a school serving students in Grades 5–12 identified with emotional disturbance or as otherwise health impaired. In addition, this program evaluation includes measures and positive findings for both (a) implementation fidelity and (b) social validity in this alternative school setting.