(PS4-B47) Improving Access to Care: Using Graduate Students to Deliver Free Stepped-care Trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT) via Telehealth

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) partnered with the University of Washington’s (UW) Psychological Services and Training Center to train graduate students to deliver Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) over telehealth to youth impacted by the pandemic and other traumatic events. The project was designed to expand the behavioral health workforce, increase well-being, and reduce the systemic burden of trauma by providing children and their families with high quality, evidence-based, and free mental health care. To do so, trauma-exposed youth were triaged at several points of entry (e.g., school districts, a large multi-site pediatric practice and Seattle Children’s Hospital and then referred to the entirely virtual clinic hosted by the UW. Youth who screened into the Stepped Care program were assigned to the first “step” of TF-CBT treatment. After ~ four sessions) using a combination of Measurement-based Care (MBC) and clinician judgment, youth were either “stepped up” to a higher level of care (the latter portion of TF-CBT treatment), referred out for different care or graduated.

The Stepped Care project provided an innovative way to expand the behavioral health workforce by recruiting and training graduate student clinicians and TF-CBT supervisors from across the state/. Student clinicians completed 12 hours of online training, a three-day virtual training with a Certified TF-CBT Trainer and ongoing supervision in TF-CBT by licensed supervisors. Student clinicians were also trained to systematically evaluate treatment progress over time using MBC. Currently, over 40 graduate students have received training in the provision of an evidence-based treatment for trauma-exposed youth, all of which was taught via telehealth through the use of a virtual clinic. At the completion of the pilot year of the project (June 2022), the majority of clients e shown statistically significant improvements in their symptoms by the end of treatment. Clinical outcome data for this project is still ongoing, with completion projected for June 2023.