“I've Been Able to Really Go Beyond the Symptom of the Drug Use and Try to Help the Client Find, You Know, What Is Underneath”: Most Appreciated Features of Training for the Substance Use Disorder Workforce.

Background and Purpose: Substance use disorder (SUD) is a significant public health issue that disproportionally impacts historically marginalized populations. Expansion of research on the training of social workers is urgently needed to develop a qualified workforce capable of delivering the SUD services and thus eradicate disparities.

A qualitative analysis was conducted to deepen and extend the evaluation findings of a nationwide workforce development program, Coast-to-Coast (C2C), which intentionally integrates SUD related training content into existing MSW curricula to train the next social worker generation. The analysis aimed to identify the features of the program most appreciated by the participating MSW students.

Methods: Over three years, 81 students participated in training cohorts (n=24, 30, and 27, for Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively). The primary qualitative data for the process analysis was collected through student focus groups (two per cohort) at the end of participation and recorded and transcribed using Zoom software. Three members of the evaluation team independently coded the data. Analytic seminars were convened with the coders and two senior researchers to develop an inductive coding scheme.

Four themes emerged in subsequent thematic analysis: newness; relevance; expanding perspective; and most appreciated features of training. The transcripts coded for most appreciated features of the training were imported into Atlas.ti. This theme was selected because it reflected directly an assessment of the lived experience of the training participants. The analysis was conducted by one of the senior researchers to identify which of the most appreciated features of the training were salient by using grounded theory criteria of frequency and theoretical centrality.

Findings: The student experience indicated that the most appreciated feature of the C2C program was its skilled based sessions. The program introduced new skills not covered in the regular MSW curriculum, which improved student confidence in entering the SUD workforce through a deeper understanding of how to work with clients. The feature of the professional expertise of presenters gained in years of clinical and research was also salient. Additionally, lived experience of presenters who had themselves suffered with SUD was also appreciated. Students consistently expressed that these features were significant in increasing their knowledge gained in the MSW curriculum and contributed a deep understanding of the skills needed in the SUD workforce.

Conclusion and Implications: The analysis highlights the importance of andragogical approaches in the training of social work students for the SUD workforce. Students appreciated the opportunity to acquire practice-relevant skills not included in existing MSW curriculum. These findings highlighted the need of integrating workforce trainings with existing MSW curricula. This appreciation is closely tied to the program trainers who gained expertise through lived experience. The findings suggest that skills and trainer lived experience is critical for effective SUD workforce training programs and policy.