The Role of Cooperative Extension in Delivering Training and Technical Assistance to Support Evidence-Based Behavioral Health Practices in Rural Communities

Abstract

The opioid epidemic in the United States continues to disproportionately affect those in rural, compared to urban, areas due to a variety of treatment and recovery barriers. One mechanism to increase capacity of rural-serving providers is through delivery of training and technical assistance (TTA) for evidence-based programs by leveraging the Cooperative Extension System. Guided by the Interactive Systems Framework, the current study evaluates TTA delivered by the Northwest Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Collabroative to opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery providers on short- (satisfaction, anticipated benefit), medium-, (behavioral intention to change current practice), and long-term goals (changes toward adoption of evidence-based practices). We also evaluated differences in short- and medium-term goals by intensity of TTA event and rurality of provider. Surveys of 351 providers who received TTA indicated high levels of satisfaction with TTA events attended, expressed strong agreement that they would benefit from the event, intended to make a professional practice change, and preparation toward implementing changes. Compared to urban-based providers, rural providers reported higher intention to use TTA information to change current practice. We conclude with a review of remaining gaps in the research to practice pipeline and recommendations for moving forward.

Strengthening the Science and Practice of Implementation Support: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Training and Technical Assistance Centers

“…Unfortunately, these challenges create burdens for both those seeking and those delivering care. In their article, Weybright et al (2024) consider the special case of rural treatment providers as they examine the effectiveness of TTA when delivered through the agriculturally based cooperative extension system. The significance of their research is attributable to the fact that they drill down deeply into the TTA infrastructure and examine how it influences adoption of EBPs among practitioners delivering services in rural areas.…”