Brief Training on Medication-Assisted Treatment Improves Community Mental Health Clinicians’ Confidence and Readiness to Address Substance Use Disorders

Abstract

Despite the availability and effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorders (SUDs), utilization of these medications remains suboptimal, especially in public sector settings. A key limitation is clinicians' reluctance to include MAT in their routine practice due, in part, to low confidence about managing SUDs and limited awareness of the disease model of addiction. This study evaluates the impact of a one-day MAT training for community mental health clinicians using a 30-item pre-and post-training questionnaire. Of the 109 clinicians who attended the training, 107 completed the pre-and post-training questionnaires. Factor analysis of the questionnaire identified two domains: readiness to address SUDs among patients (factor 1) and understanding SUDs as diseases (factor 2). Post training, there was a significant change in both factor 1 (p= .00001) and factor 2 (p= .00003), indicating that a brief MAT training can increase clinicians' confidence and readiness to address SUDs and improve their understanding of the disease model of addiction.

Patient and Provider Perspectives on Treating Substance Use Disorder and Co-Occurring Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress Disorders in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

“…Supporting current study provider participants' perception of potential stigma or training gaps, a prior survey study of VHA providers found relatively high endorsement of "myths" (e.g., abstinence from substances essential to begin trauma treatment; Najavits et al, 2010). Prior work from a community setting (i.e., non-VHA) has found that brief provider-facing educational interventions can improve providers' confidence in working with patients with SUD (Iheanacho et al, 2020). Identifying education and implementation needs among those who have inaccurate or unscientific beliefs or policies will be an important next step in improving treatment for veterans with co-occurring anxiety/PTSD and SUD in large healthcare systems.…”

Medication-assisted treatment 24-hr waiver training for opioid use disorder: Lessons learned

“…Improving access to MAT training and integrating it into clinician programs and curriculums would remove some barriers and enable newly trained clinicians to treat up to 30 patients with SUD at the end of each training cycle (Zittleman et al, 2020). This would help alleviate the barrier of limited access to trained MAT clinicians for patients suffering from OUD (Iheanacho et al, 2020). Integrating MAT early into clinician programs and curriculums with repeated exposure could dispel some of the stigma surrounding OUD and encourage future practitioners to see OUD as the chronic disease it is.…”

Evidence-based Treatment for Substance Use Disorders in Community Mental Health Centers: the ACCESS Program

“…9 Barriers to EBT adoption include lack of awareness of treatment modalities, lack of training or education about SUDs or EBTs, lack of experience, patient misconceptions about the nature and effectiveness of treatment options, and stigma. [10][11][12] Brief, didactic training has been shown to improve clinician understanding and confidence in treating SUD, as well as increase education of the disease model of addiction. 11 Nevertheless, even when providers are willing to provide SUD treatments, there is a need for dissemination and implementation initiatives that are directly aimed at training clinicians on how to provide EBTs so that patients with SUDs can more easily access high quality services.…”

“…[10][11][12] Brief, didactic training has been shown to improve clinician understanding and confidence in treating SUD, as well as increase education of the disease model of addiction. 11 Nevertheless, even when providers are willing to provide SUD treatments, there is a need for dissemination and implementation initiatives that are directly aimed at training clinicians on how to provide EBTs so that patients with SUDs can more easily access high quality services.…”