Effective clinical supervision in substance use disorder treatment programs and counselor job performance.

When mental health counselors have inadequate training in substance use disorders (SUDs), effective clinical supervision (ECS) may advance their professional development. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether ECS is related to the job performance of SUD counselors. Data were obtained in person via paper-and-pencil surveys from 392 matched SUD counselor-supervisor dyads working in 27 SUD treatment organizations across the United States, all participating in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network platform study, “Managing Effective Relationships in Treatment Services” (MERITS I). Counselors rated ECS on five multi-item scales (sponsoring counselors’ careers, providing challenging assignments, role modeling, accepting/confirming counselors’ competence, and overall supervisor task proficiency). Clinical supervisors rated counselor job performance on two multi-item scales (task performance and performance within the supervisory relationship). Using mixed-effects models, the authors found that most aspects of ECS are related to SUD counselor job performance. Thus, ECS may indeed enhance counselor performance on tasks and within the supervisory relationship, which may offset the limited formal SUD training.