Training Experienced Mental Health Practitioners to Deliver Foundational Trauma Education: The Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma

Objective: The majority of U.S. mental health practitioners receive little to no foundational trauma education, and instead rely on in-service or continuing education to fill this deficit. Consequently, it is essential to have experienced mental health practitioners capable of delivering trauma education. Since 2009; experienced mental health practitioners have been trained to use the Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma (CCCT) to deliver trauma education to other mental health practitioners. Despite prior evidence that the CCCT increases the trauma skills of trainees, to date no evaluation has been conducted on developing facilitators’ skills, a crucial element in ensuring effective education. Method: Longitudinal, multiinstrument data were collected from 85 CCCT facilitators trained between October 2016-January 2020; along with learning outcome data from 1646 mental health practitioners trained by those facilitators through March 2021. Results: High facilitator skill levels were seen across all instruments, including statistically significant change between preand posttraining measures for 7 core facilitator skills (effect sizes:.90 to 2.25). The data also identified challenges in facilitator development and retention. Conclusions: CCCT facilitator training effectively imparts skills needed to increase workforce trauma capacity; however, modifications to the facilitator development model are needed to maximize impact of scale-up efforts.