The role of facilitator training in intervention delivery: Preparing clinicians to deliver AFFIRMative group cognitive behavioural therapy to sexual and gender minority youth

AFFIRM
Written By INQYR

Craig, S. L., Iacono, G., Austin, A., Eaton, A. D., Pang, N., Leung, V., & Frey, C. (2020). The role of facilitator training in intervention delivery: Preparing clinicians to deliver AFFIRMative group cognitive behavioural therapy to sexual and gender minority youth. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10538720.2020.1836704

Highlights

Background

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can promote sexual and mental health risk reduction.

Tailored affirmative approaches, where facilitators validate participants’ lived experiences, bolster CBT’s potential to improve coping and mood, especially for sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY).

Specialized training better prepares clinicians to deliver affirmative CBT and contributes to implementation fidelity.

Study Description

  • This paper describes the  standardized AFFIRM Facilitator Training for clinicians to deliver an affirmative CBT group intervention to SGMY

  • The AFFIRM training consists of 14 hours of didactic and simulation-based learning

  • Participants (n = 129; aged 22–68) represented diverse professional, sexual, gender, and ethnoracial identities, with a particular focus on community-based practitioners

  • To evaluate training effectiveness, participants completed the 7-item Affirmative CBT Facilitator Competence Scale (ACCS) designed for this study

Key Findings

  • Post AFFIRM Facilitator Training, participants reported a significant increase in ACCS scores, indicating improved competence to facilitate affirmative CBT. We found a significant quantitative difference between pre- and post-training scores

  • Thematic analysis of qualitative feedback identified two major themes:

    (1) Training strengthened facilitators’ ability to affirm SGMY identities

    (2) Training increased facilitators’ competence to deliver AFFIRM

  • The training increased the skills of a diverse group of clinicians to facilitate affirmative CBT to SGMY

 
INQYR
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