2 - (SYM 41) the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Web-based Training for Evidence-based Practices in Community Mental Health Settings

Expanding access to evidence-based psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) requires continuous development and improvement in strategies for training therapists. Training mental healthcare providers in CBT via web-based training offers a powerful and scalable solution. Web-based training requires markedly fewer resources than in-person training and previous research has found no significant differences in CBT knowledge acquisition and competency between these methods (German et al., 2017). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many clinical training programs successfully transitioned instructional methods online (Stojan et al., 2021). However, many challenges to virtual training emerged including reduced perceptions of knowledge gains, lower intentions to use treatment models, aversion to some digital teaching formats (John et al, 2022), as well as screen fatigue, physical isolation from peers, and connectivity issues (Kern & Tague, 2022). Thus, it is critical that we examine whether and how web-based CBT training engagement and outcomes were affected by different stages of the pandemic.

In this study, we analyze differences in CBT knowledge acquisition, measured via a 20-item multiple-choice test assessing CBT principles and interventions, and observer-rated competency, measured via the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS; Young & Beck, 1980) in community mental health clinicians who were trained in CBT via online trainings. Multilevel modeling will be used to test for differences in change in competency scores between clinicians trained in CBT via self-guided web-based training prior to the pandemic (N = 655, M = 18.47, SD = 8.91), during peak pandemic (N = 66, M = 20.31, SD = 7.21), and post-peak pandemic (N = 123, M = 20.89, SD = 8.08), with therapists who received live virtual trainings during (N = 27, M = 20.69, SD = 7.77) and following (N = 108, M = 22, SD = 7.57) the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for the development of clinical training programs that rely on eLearning will be discussed.