Assessing Student Outcomes of a Behavioral Health Training Program in Social Work

Background and Purpose: The authors present a project funded by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designed to enhance competence behavioral health with culturally diverse children and youth through didactic trainings for advanced year MSW students. The training program operates in a region where residents experience a significant number of risk factors related to mental health: high childhood poverty rates, (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2013); high rates of single parenthood (Urban Child Institute, 2013); high rates of poor mental health days, high substance use rates, and high crime rates including homicide (Tennessee Department of Health, 2011). The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent the training program achieves the funder’s goals and student competency in three areas following training: cultural and linguistic competency, transition-age youth, and engagement with families. We investigate: 1) Initial scores on self-efficacy related to focus competencies; 2) initial cultural competency; 3) specific knowledge following training in cultural and linguistic competency, transition-age youth, and engagement with families; 4) whether there are differences among groups of students; and 5) whether initial and rubric scores are correlated.

Methods: Initial competency is measured with the Self-Efficacy Tool containing 12 specifically developed items based on 2008 EPAS assessing program goals. Items are on a 1-9 Likert-type scale where scores 1-3 indicate trainee has not met competency, scores 4-6 indicate trainee is making progress, and scores 7-9 indicate competency. Initial cultural competency is measured with Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Assessment (CCHPA) where items are scored from 1 to 3, with higher scores indicating higher cultural competency (National Center for Cultural Competence, 2014). Knowledge and skills following training are graded with ad-hocrubrics where items on a 1-10 Likert-type scale indicate knowledge/skill not demonstrated (1-3), minimally demonstrated knowledge/skill (4-7), and demonstrated knowledge/skill (8-10). We obtained means and standard deviations to assess competency levels, and investigated differences among students with t-tests and ANOVAs. Finally, we explored whether initial scores were correlated to rubric scores.

Results: A total of 18 MSW students (Black=10, 55%, White=8, 45%; female=16, 88%, male=2, 12%). The students are part-time (n3, 17%), second-year (8, 44%) and advanced-standing (7, 39%). Initial scores on self-efficacy on competencies (M=6.03, SD= 1.2337) and cultural competency (M=2.42, SD=.3417) suggest emerging competency in the areas under consideration. Scores on knowledge and skill rubrics on Cultural and Linguistic Competency (M=9.47, SD=.5233), Transition-Age Youth (M=9.44, SD=.6526), and Engage with families (M=8.46, SD=1.1102) demonstrate knowledge. We found no significant differences among the groups, except for small differences based on race on the item assessing knowledge and skills with Transition-Age Youth (t=-2.36, p=.039; Black, M=9.1790, SD= .7698; White, M=9.7788, SD=.2060). We found no significant correlations between initial scores and rubric scores on any of the measures.

Conclusions and Implications: Initial and rubric score results and lack of group differences and correlation between previous knowledge and post-training scores suggest that the training program is increasing competency to practice in behavioral health with culturally diverse children, youth, and transition-age youth among future MSW graduates in the region.