Community mental health agencies are increasingly using online training formats to reduce costs while maintaining staff training requirements. Online training allows clinicians to complete training during downtime and provides flexibility for staff. Studies show that online training costs agencies less than in-person training due to reduced transportation, lost productivity, and training material costs. While some in-person training is still needed, agencies are finding that blending online and in-person training helps meet requirements more efficiently.

1. Reprinted from May 10, 2010
Staff training persists despite cuts; Bottom Line…
many agencies turn to online formats Some mental health agencies are
seeing a variety of benefits in moving
T
These days in many community agencies. As part of that arrange-
more toward online training, from
mental health agencies, a client no- ment, the National Council hosts a
cost, productivity and staff satisfaction
show for an appointment no longer small-agency version of Essential
standpoints.
leaves a clinician grasping for alter- Learning’s Learning Management
natives to staring at the wall. The cli- System, tailored to the needs of
nician is likely to use the newfound member organizations with 60 or behavioral health agencies.
time to complete mandated training fewer employees and helping reduce “These types of training are not
activity, simply by going online to their overall training costs. going away; they don’t get cut when
access the educational material. “In online training, if a clinician governments cut agencies’ budgets,”
Community mental health agen- is waiting for a client, they can start Erskine said.
cies now have a number of alterna- on a course,” Essential Learning Providence Service Corporation’s
tives to sending staff members off- CEO Sue Erskine told MHW. “Also, Walsh said that while state training
site for training and incurring the some agencies let their employees requirements differ greatly among
transportation costs and productivity take the training classes at home.” the many offices in its decentralized
losses associated with employees operation, the company has been
leaving their work site for an extend- able to organize common training
ed period. A number of companies ‘These types of needs for everyone into an all-staff
offer online learning systems cover- orientation. Covered topics include
ing most or all of the training areas training are not ethics, the Health Insurance Porta-
affecting behavioral health organiza- bility and Accountability Act (HIPAA),
tions, and agencies are reporting that
going away; they cultural awareness and environmen-
staff members are becoming increas- don’t get cut when tal safety, she said.
ingly comfortable with less face-to- Likewise, the director of educa-
face interaction with a trainer. governments cut tion and training at community
“Some are hesitant at first, but agencies’ budgets.’ mental health agency COMTREA,
once they participate they get sold on Inc. in Missouri lists ethics training
it,” Tasha Walsh, a vice president in Sue Erskine at the top when asked to cite the
the Eastern Division operation of hot-button subjects in staff training
Providence Service Corporation, a these days. Overall, San Mueller
national company managing more Specific training needs says training remains an important
than 100 community mental health Staff training needs in behavioral priority in the organization’s admin-
offices across the country, told MHW. health organizations are far-ranging, istration. “We feel it’s important for
“Clinicians appreciate the flexibility, involving an array of state and our staff that evidence-based princi-
because in direct care they always national regulatory requirements, ples are used in the therapy that we
have to juggle a client schedule.” professional accreditation standards do,” Mueller told MHW.
The National Council for and other mandates. They have rep- Mueller said her agency has
Community Behavioral Healthcare resented something of a fixed cost used the Learning Management
responded to the emergence of for agencies, in that the requirements System from Essential Learning for
online training opportunities in don’t tend to be lifted when an about three years. In many cases,
recent years by cementing an exclu- agency’s government funding gets the provider organization employs a
sive partnership with the company reduced. If anything, the continued blended approach to training, offer-
Essential Learning, which offers cus- push to evidence-based practice will ing a combination of live sessions
tomized e-learning for mental health, only intensify the need for consis- and online learning. Mueller said
addiction and other human-service tently updated training schedules in See Training on page 2
Mental Health Weekly DOI:10.1002/mhw A Wiley Periodicals, Inc. publication www.interscience.wiley.com

2. Reprinted from May 10, 2010 Mental Health Weekly
2
Training from page 1 from a productivity standpoint. portation and logistics are included
the agency’s non-clinical staff obtain Mueller explained that the in those costs), while 5,292 hours of
probably about 75 percent of their online training proved efficient as online training during the same
training information online, a some- her agency was transitioning to period cost the agency only $7,679.
what higher percentage than what becoming accredited under CARF, At Providence Service Corpora-
clinical staff receive online. after having received accreditation tion, officials are testing a third
For several of the training areas from another entity in the past. She option of “tele-learning” through
important to COMTREA’s staff, the said that while the agency’s receiv- trainer-led classes that employees
organization has been able to ing a three-year accreditation from can attend from their own offices.
upload additional pertinent informa- CARF can’t be attributed solely to its Walsh said that for a six-hour train-
tion to the Essential Learning sys- staff training protocol, the move ing, her organization has estimated
tem, Mueller said. Erskine explained toward blended live and online that in-person training costs it about
that the Essential Learning system training has assisted the agency in $115 per continuing-education hour,
includes a library with special sec- its compliance with training areas while a tele-class costs only about
tions in areas such as community that are carefully scrutinized as part $15 per CEU hour.
health and corrections. She added of accreditation review. The agency now is participating
that some of the training material in a research project under which it
available online has been cus- Cost impacts will test the effectiveness of the var-
tomized for individual states’ specif- It is likely that as training ious training methods for staff, by
ic regulatory requirements. options for behavioral health organ- measuring staff members’ retention
Neither Walsh nor Mueller izations grow, more agencies will of material under various learning
believe their organizations ever will begin to engage in more sophisticat- formats and then how that shapes
choose to replace all in-person ed financial analyses of their training their everyday work, Walsh said.
training with online learning. For choices. “Many of these agencies “We think that the tele-classes
one thing, Walsh said, some state don’t carefully analyze their spend- can be better than in-person,” Walsh
regulations that spell out training ing on training,” Erskine said. said. “Sometimes you go to an in-
requirements still include provisions COMTREA looked at the period person session and you’re all excit-
that cap the number of training between June 2008 and June 2009 ed, but you’ve left work behind and
hours that can be accounted for via and could see a stark difference in when you return to your workplace
online means for a particular subject its costs of live training vs. online you have to immerse yourself in all
area. But both say that integrating training. During that period, it the work you didn’t do. At that
online training into their operations offered 5,510 hours of live training point you’re lucky if you remember
has generated numerous benefits at a cost of just over $63,000 (trans- one thing from the training.” •
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Mental Health Weekly DOI:10.1002/mhw A Wiley Periodicals, Inc. publication www.interscience.wiley.com