Citation

Aarons GA, Sommerfeld DH, Hecht DB, Silovsky JF, Chaffin MJ. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 2009; 77(2): 270-280.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA 92123, USA. gaarons@ucsd.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0013223

PMID

19309186

PMCID

PMC2742697

Abstract

Staff retention is an ongoing challenge in mental health and community-based service organizations. Little is known about the impact of evidence-based practice implementation on the mental health and social service workforce. The present study examined the effect of evidence-based practice implementation and ongoing fidelity monitoring on staff retention in a children's services system. The study took place in the context of a statewide, regionally randomized effectiveness trial of an evidence-based intervention designed to reduce child neglect. In the study 21 teams consisting of 153 home-based service providers were followed over a 29-month period. Survival analyses revealed greater staff retention in the condition where the evidence-based practice was implemented along with ongoing fidelity monitoring presented to staff as supportive consultation. These results should help to allay concerns about staff retention when implementing evidence-based practices where there is good values-innovation fit and when fidelity monitoring is designed as an aid and support to service providers in providing a high standard of care for children and families.

Language: en