Symposia
Telehealth/m-Health
Simone Schriger, M.A.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Austin Boroshok, MA
Doctoral student
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Anika Khan, MA
Doctoral student
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Leah Wang, MA
Doctoral student
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Emily M. Becker-Haimes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Supervision in community mental health (CMH) settings is critically important for supporting and sustaining clinical competency, as well as optimizing clinical outcomes. However, CMH supervision is hindered by numerous administrative and fiscal challenges, which makes aligning supervision practices with gold-standard recommendations notoriously difficult. These challenges have been magnified by workplace and workforce changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the rapid shift to remote service delivery, changes in roles and responsibilities, and increased turnover. In this presentation, we describe a case example of one multi-component supervision approach within a CMH clinic that leverages telehealth (which makes remote supervision a possibility) and is used to support the delivery of exposure therapy (“exposure”) to youth with publicly funded insurance. We first review current recommendations for supervision and highlight the primary barriers to the use of these supervisory practices in CMH settings, especially in light of the COVID-related increase in remote work. We then present three low-burden supervisory approaches used to supplement traditional individual supervision. Each strategy presented aims to mitigate known barriers and maximize alignment with gold-standard supervision practices for exposure while being sustainable within a community setting. Finally, we review the strengths and limitations of each supervision strategy. The multi-component strategies presented represent a creative approach to CMH supervision that maximizes the limited resources and infrastructure in CMH settings and leverages telehealth to support the delivery of gold-standard supervision. We conclude by offering insights into how these strategies could support supervision for a broader range of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and how they could be leveraged to address the increase in virtual treatment delivery.