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Effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing Supervision in Community Programs

Effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing Supervision in Community Programs

Status
Completed
Phases
Phase 2Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01586676
Enrollment
450
Registered
2012-04-27
Start date
2009-01-31
Completion date
2014-05-31
Last updated
2017-01-11

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Clinical Supervision, Signs and Symptoms

Keywords

supervision, motivational interviewing, substance abuse, dissemination

Brief summary

The virtual requirement that substance abuse programs use evidence-based treatments (EBT) has prompted the development of dissemination strategies to promote EBT technology transfer. Implementation research, clinical trial training methods, and clinician training studies suggest that clinical supervision that involves direct observation, fidelity rating-based feedback, and coaching of therapeutic skills is a promising dissemination approach. However, clinical supervision delivered within substance abuse programs by on-site supervisors has never been directly tested in a randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of supervision on both clinician EBT skills and client treatment outcomes. Recent results from two NIDA CTN protocols testing the effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing (MI) have shown that community program clinicians can learn to deliver MI with fidelity when receiving MI supervision from their program supervisors after workshop training and that their implementation of MI early in treatment improves client retention and primary substance use outcomes. A MI supervision manual called MIA: STEP (Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency) was developed from these protocols and has begun to be widely distributed by NIDA in partnership with SAMHSA for community program use. The effectiveness of the MIA: STEP supervision approach is unknown. This study will directly test the effectiveness of MIA: STEP supervision on clinician MI fidelity and on client outcomes by randomly assigning 60 clinicians and 420 substance-using outpatients from 11 community programs within Connecticut to one of two conditions in which clinicians in both conditions will deliver a 1-session MI intervention to clients as the enter treatment. The conditions are: 1) workshop training plus MIA: STEP supervision, and 2) workshop training alone with supervision-as-usual practices used at each program. This project will be the first randomized trial to examine the impact of clinical supervision in an empirically based treatment on both clinician and client outcomes. Moreover, because it will provide workshop training and supervision completely within the context of community programs and utilize in-house program supervisors, it will provide a rigorous evaluation of a feasible model for disseminating EBTs such as MI.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALSAU

Supervision-as-usual

BEHAVIORALMIA: STEP

Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency (MIA: STEP

Sponsors

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Lead SponsorNIH

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 100 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

For Clinicians Inclusion Criteria: * age 18 or older who work at one of the 12 participating programs * willing to serve as study clinicians and learn the MI assessment intake * working at least 20 hours per week at the program * are not intending to give notice to their employer that they intend to leave the agency or are not scheduled for medical or family leave during the study period * willing to record clinical sessions for review by the MI expert and/or independent raters * willing to have supervision sessions recorded if randomized to MIA: STEP condition * deemed capable by program administrative leadership to manage the responsibilities of being a clinician in a randomized trial

Exclusion criteria

* served as MI therapists in prior clinical trial studies. * received formal supervision in MI based on direct observation, session ratings, and related feedback and coaching. * trained as MI trainers through the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). For Clients Inclusion Criteria: * English-speaking * seeking non-opiate replacement outpatient treatment for any substance use problem and have used primary substance (alcohol or illicit drug) at least once in the prior 28 days * 18 years of age or older * willing to participate in the protocol (randomization to clinicians contact for follow-up assessments, MI session recording for supervisor and independent review)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
client retention4-week and 12-week follow-upThe main outcome for the client participant trial is program retention at 4-week and 12-week followups after having received a 1-session intake. Program retention is defined as the the percent days of program attendances (days attended/# days scheduled) and percent sessions attended (sessions attended/# sessions scheduled) verified by administrative record and interview with clinical staff

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
motivational interviewing adherence and competencebaseline, post-trial and 16-weeks post-trialChange in clinician participant motivational interviewing (MI) adherence and competence will be measured from baseline to a post-trial point and from baseline to a 16-week post-trial follow-up point. The timeframe for the trial phase for each clinician participant will vary depending on how long it takes to be assigned and deliver the MI-base intake to 7 client participants.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026