Grant: Operating Grant

Approximately 9% of Canadians will have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in their lifetime. In the military veteran population, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD has been estimated to be as high as 20%. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that short-term, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies, such as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), lead to substantial improvements in PTSD symptoms. However, research suggests that a minority of clinicians provide these therapies in clinical settings. The transfer of this research knowledge into clinical settings remains one of the largest hurdles to improving the health of Canadians with PTSD. It is well established that attending a 2-day workshop on these therapies alone is insufficient to promote adequate knowledge transfer and sustained skillful use. The current study aims to contrast whether two forms of post-workshop support (6-month duration), with different levels of expert oversight, will result in superior levels of clinician skill and patient outcomes versus no formal post-workshop support. The two forms of post-workshop support are 1) web-enhanced group tele-consultation and 2) standard group tele-consultation. Following a 2-day CPT workshop, 90 mental health clinicians will be randomly assigned to either one of these two support modalities or assigned to no post-workshop support. The primary outcome will be independent expert assessment of the clinicians' adherence and competence in delivering the psychotherapy (via audio-recordings). The secondary outcome will be observed changes in patient symptoms during and following treatment as a function of the clinicians' level of skill. Interviews with clinicians following the consultation period will help identify what helped or hindered their skill acquisition. The study results will help inform how best to implement and and transfer evidence-based psychotherapy (e.g., CPT) to clinical settings to attain comparable outcomes to those observed in research.