Training Rehabilitation Providers in Mental and Behavioral Health: A Pilot Study

Background: Mental and behavioral health issues are rising and becoming increasingly prevalent as a comorbid clinical presentation in rehabilitation. Objective: To assess rehabilitation provider's knowledge and attitudes towards patients with mental and behavioral health issues, following a training session on behavioral health. Design: Pre-immediate post and follow-up survey study Methods: A convenience sample of healthcare providers signed up for an online mental and behavioral class consisting of three 90-minute sessions. Prior to, immediately following and at 3-months following, participants completed a series of survey questions pertaining to beliefs, attitudes and knowledge related to mental and behavioral health. Likert scales were used to determine comfort with treating various mental and behavioral health issues and mental health-related knowledge was measured using the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS). Results: Fourteen healthcare providers (92.3% female) completed the training and all measures. All levels of comfort with mental health shifted immediately following training, with only trauma being significant (p = 0.047), but did not remain at 3-month follow-up. Mental health-related knowledge improved significantly immediately following training (p = 0.008), and was still significantly improved 3-months after training (p = 0.011). Conclusion: An online training session is able to shift mental health-related knowledge in rehabilitation providers but not comfort with treating depression, anxiety and trauma. Additional research is needed to extrapolate and expand on the results of this pilot study