Consulting in Action: A Case Study of Six Community Support Teams Sustaining Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment

Adopting and sustaining mental health-evidence based practices (EBPs) in community mental health agencies is a challenge because it often entails making infrastructural changes, such as support for assessments and creation of new service types, with minimal financial support from state mental health authorities. Even when there is appropriate funding, oversight, and systems, ongoing training and support for staff are limited and require creative use of agency resources. EBP guides and toolkits must be supplemented by ongoing training, for example, consultation, in order to support and maintain changes in staff behavior. This paper describes the impact of an interactive, in-vivo consulting model on quality of services and consumer outcomes. This training model, in conjunction with program monitoring, supported and maintained the clinical components of one mental health EBP, integrated dual disorder treatment, for individuals with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorder.