Direct care workers in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network: Characteristics, opinions, and beliefs.

For this study, individuals with direct care responsibilities in drug abuse treatment units were surveyed to obtain a description of the workforce and to assess support for evidence-based therapies. These surveys were distributed to 112 programs participating in the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN).

Descriptive analyses characterized the workforce, and analyses of covariance tested the effects of job category on opinions about evidence-based practices and controlled for the effects of education, modality (outpatient or residential), race, and gender. The analyses determined that women make up two-thirds of the CTN workforce, one-third of the workforce had a master’s or doctoral degree, and one-third were from racial or ethnic minority groups, characteristics that seem to be consistent with data from previous assessments of the clinical workforce. In terms of support for evidence-based therapies, managers-supervisors were the most supportive, with support staff the least supportive.

Generally, individuals with graduate degrees also tended to have the more positive opinions about evidence-based therapies. Support for using medications and contingency management was modest across job categories. In conclusion, it appears that the relatively traditional beliefs of support staff could inhibit the introduction of evidence-based practices, thus, programs initiating changes in therapeutic approaches may benefit from including all employees in change efforts. A commentary on this article, written by Henrick Harwood, is also available.

Related protocols: CTN-0008