Barriers to and Facilitators in the Implementation of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Youth Anxiety in the Community
Abstract
Objective:
Methods:
Results:
Conclusions:
Methods
Participants
Measures
Provider Demographics and Attitudes Questionnaire.
Qualitative interview.
Procedure
Data Analysis
Results
Factor | N | % |
---|---|---|
Client | ||
Barriers | 41 | 95 |
Stressors and comorbidities | 37 | 86 |
Motivation | 25 | 58 |
Age | 24 | 56 |
Facilitators | 15 | 35 |
Motivation | 9 | 21 |
Functioning | 5 | 12 |
Parent support | 4 | 9 |
Intervention | ||
Barriers | 32 | 74 |
Structure | 23 | 53 |
Exposures | 12 | 28 |
Length | 9 | 21 |
Facilitators | 36 | 84 |
Treatment components | 24 | 56 |
Structure | 22 | 51 |
CBT effectiveness | 9 | 21 |
Organizational | ||
Barriers | 31 | 72 |
Setting | 25 | 58 |
Lack of support | 15 | 35 |
No child clients | 5 | 12 |
Facilitators | 36 | 84 |
Support | 35 | 81 |
Setting | 5 | 12 |
Autonomy | 3 | 7 |
Factor and theme | Example |
---|---|
Client barriers | |
Stressors and comorbidities | “I don’t really think that CBT works well with people [who] have multiple stressors because there [are] so many aspects going on that it’s really hard to pinpoint one or two goals to work on. And I feel like even if you identify a goal, if there are so many stressors, by the next week there’s another goal. So I don’t feel like it works that well.” |
“I’d say it is probably less effective because there’s just constant crisis to the family. So it’s hard to and it’s a slower process because the crises need to be worked on as they happen, so you can’t get to what your plan is every session.” | |
“I think the only thing is that the population that I have been working with [in] my career is primarily [the] low-income, Medicaid population, and [with] the intensity of some of their [other] issues, the anxiety doesn’t always seem to be the biggest, most salient issue to treat; the trauma and other issues come first.” | |
“[For] a lot of clients that I see, their main diagnoses are oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And some of them are diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, some of them are diagnosed with anxiety, some of them are diagnosed with depression, but the majority of the clients I see are ODD and ADHD. So I would say [that for] the ones [who] are diagnosed with ODD, it’s quite difficult because they don’t want to do any type of work in school. So when I try to use CBT and do these different activities with them, they don’t have the patience or the compliance to really be able to sit through an entire session.” | |
Motivation | “Well certainly the . . . patient willingness to participate. . . . We also treat a number of adolescents, and as those kids get older, they seem less willing to . . . practice, especially the physical stuff like the breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation. I don’t know if they just felt awkward, but they seem less willing to [do] that, so . . . just my trying to explain what we were doing and [their] kind of accepting the modality was the most difficult thing.” |
Age | “You know it’s just hard to get it across [with] young children. I find that really hard.” Another provider commented, “With the older youth [kind of] being more urban and hip-hop-ish. They don’t [want to] do stuff that’s corny, or . . . it’s considered childish or not cool.” |
“It works very well with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, so . . . 9, 10, and 11 year-olds, but [at] 6, 7, and 8 it’s more difficult—because they’re not always aware of what the negative or anxious thoughts are. And they have a more difficult time labeling them.” | |
Client facilitators | |
Motivation | “I guess from before when the client appears to be motivated and [wants] to work towards it, it works really well. . . . You know if the client wants to, they respond to it really well . . . so I guess, again, the motivation part.” |
Functioning | “Well I would say it’s easier obviously if you have someone with reasonable functioning who can process and who can differentiate between their thoughts and their feelings.” |
Intervention barriers | |
Structure | “Well personally, especially in the beginning, I do like it because it gives me a sense of what I should be doing, and it’s very helpful. However, I think it can be hurtful if—I have to remind myself not to rely on that so much and that sometimes you need to alter things.” |
Exposures | “So I didn’t really get to that with a lot of my kids. . . . I don’t think that I was able to do any of the actual exposures. . . . But I think that is really an important piece of the process as long as you have done the base work for it, kind of prepping kids for that, but I don’t think that I actually got to do that work with any of my kids [because they] fell off before we were able to get to that point. They either stopped coming or they weren’t coming consistently enough for me to feel ok about doing an exposure with them and maybe not seeing them next week. I felt like it was really important if you were to start doing that work to know for sure that they were going to be there the next week for us to process it and . . . you know, I’m thinking that was kind of an obstacle for them.” |
Intervention facilitators | |
Treatment components | “For the people I worked with, it was really developing coping skills, . . . and so I think that recognizing signs of anxiety and trying to problem solve around addressing those [problems] worked best. . . . The first part, the psychoeducation and the recognition of what was going on with them, was helpful.” |
Structure | “I think in terms of being helpful, again, I like when you explain it to [students] how their thoughts are connected to how they feel and connected to how they behave, how it is all connected, I think a light bulb goes off. So I think it really kind of helps them take control of that and see how they are in control and they have power, and I think that that could really make some positive changes for some kids.” |
“For me, I love the fact that it was mapped out and felt organized—like right around the fourth session, you should have the family involvement, that kind of thing. I like the guidance that it gave me. It was clear, it mapped out for me, and I had the materials right there for me.” | |
“I think the structure is beautiful. . . . It was very clear when it was laid out . . . the first session you should be doing this, second session you should be doing this. . . . That helped me have a map.” | |
Organizational barriers | |
Setting | “My thoughts are changed. . . . When I first received the training, I thought I would be able to incorporate it more easily into my specific job, in a school-based setting. But I tried to do that, and it wasn’t always as successful as I wanted it to be. And then I felt like if I were to have the specified time, you know, one hour each week with the client, I would be able to do it much better. So really just the chaotic nature of the job that I have really impeded [my] being able to successfully do the sessions consecutively.” |
Lack of support | “The support, the supervision, was lacking, so that made it more difficult to do a new practice that I wasn’t familiar with. And there was not anything specific like policies or financial issues . . . , except for maybe buying of rewards and things like that. . . . I was financially struggling with that. I did a lot of that on my own. So that was a challenge.” |
Organizational facilitators | |
Support | “[Management] definitely support[s] it. . . . Through supervision, they encourage the use of CBT, they provide written materials for my training purposes, they also teach and help role play different therapy situations, and then they also bring in speakers to provide . . . training opportunities or group supervision where we will watch videotape and discuss different CBT strategies.” |
“Our supervisor actually went through the training as well. So she was really clear about [our] being able to talk about the training, and how things are going, and got supervision through her . . . That was really helpful.” | |
“My supervisor has been appreciative and supportive of my work with kids with anxiety, so that’s increased how many kids I’ve worked with who have anxiety. [My supervisor] has been meeting with parents. . . . She will talk to parents about my work with the child and suggest that I have sessions with the child.” | |
Setting | “I think [CBT is easier to implement], even in the short time that I have been in my new position, because I have a greater aspect [of] the kids because I see them every day; even if I don’t see them for treatment every day, they are in school every day, so it’s a lot easier to implement it.” Another provider described her students as a “captive audience,” saying, “Because they’re at school, they can’t go anywhere. I don’t have to rely on the parents bringing them on time, keeping the appointment, forgetting to pick them up, or picking them up late.” |
“I think because I work with kids who are in residential care, all of the policies and procedures support their treatment and their therapy. So their attendance is not an issue, their participation generally I have no problems with; we also have kind of a wraparound model where we use all the other supports—the group therapy, the family therapy, the psychoeducational skills group—as adjunctive therapies to the individual work, and that supports the CBT process.” | |
Autonomy | “Considering 90% of my work is self-employed, I get to do whatever I want. [But also at] the fee-for-service [facility], we are all CBT-geared, so I am pretty much my own boss. So I make up my own policies.” |
“In my full-time job . . . I have a lot of flexibility to decide types of programs or methods I would like to use with kids. In my private practice, I have no boss, I get to use whatever I want.” | |
“In terms of the administration, the nice thing is . . . I’m supported in whatever I do. So it is kind of nice, and I can really be very creative in what I do with students, and no one objects.” |
Client Factors
Barriers.
Facilitators.
Intervention Factors
Barriers.
Facilitators.
Organizational Factors
Barriers.
Facilitators.
Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Supplementary Material
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