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A Brief Online Implicit Bias Intervention for School Mental Health Clinicians

Author

Listed:
  • Freda F. Liu

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

  • Jessica Coifman

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

  • Erin McRee

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

  • Jeff Stone

    (Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Blvd. Building 68, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA)

  • Amy Law

    (Learning Gateway, University of Washington School of Medicine, 850 Republican St., Bldg. C-4, Seattle, WA 98109, USA)

  • Larissa Gaias

    (Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, 850 Broadway Street, Lowell, MA 01854, USA)

  • Rosemary Reyes

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

  • Calvin K. Lai

    (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, CB 1125, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

  • Irene V. Blair

    (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Muenzinger D244, 345 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA)

  • Chia-li Yu

    (Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, 140 Moore Building, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA)

  • Heather Cook

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

  • Aaron R. Lyon

    (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 6200 NE 74th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98115, USA)

Abstract

Clinician bias has been identified as a potential contributor to persistent healthcare disparities across many medical specialties and service settings. Few studies have examined strategies to reduce clinician bias, especially in mental healthcare, despite decades of research evidencing service and outcome disparities in adult and pediatric populations. This manuscript describes an intervention development study and a pilot feasibility trial of the Virtual Implicit Bias Reduction and Neutralization Training (VIBRANT) for mental health clinicians in schools—where most youth in the U.S. access mental healthcare. Clinicians ( N = 12) in the feasibility study—a non-randomized open trial—rated VIBRANT as highly usable, appropriate, acceptable, and feasible for their school-based practice. Preliminarily, clinicians appeared to demonstrate improvements in implicit bias knowledge, use of bias-management strategies, and implicit biases (as measured by the Implicit Association Test [IAT]) post-training. Moreover, putative mediators (e.g., clinicians’ VIBRANT strategies use, IAT D scores) and outcome variables (e.g., clinician-rated quality of rapport) generally demonstrated correlations in the expected directions. These pilot results suggest that brief and highly scalable online interventions such as VIBRANT are feasible and promising for addressing implicit bias among healthcare providers (e.g., mental health clinicians) and can have potential downstream impacts on minoritized youth’s care experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Freda F. Liu & Jessica Coifman & Erin McRee & Jeff Stone & Amy Law & Larissa Gaias & Rosemary Reyes & Calvin K. Lai & Irene V. Blair & Chia-li Yu & Heather Cook & Aaron R. Lyon, 2022. "A Brief Online Implicit Bias Intervention for School Mental Health Clinicians," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:679-:d:720092
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sabin, J.A. & Greenwald, A.G., 2012. "The influence of implicit bias on treatment recommendations for 4 common pediatric conditions: Pain, urinary tract infection, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and asthma," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 988-995.
    2. Hall, W.J. & Chapman, M.V. & Lee, K.M. & Merino, Y.M. & Thomas, T.W. & Payne, B.K. & Eng, E. & Day, S.H. & Coyne-Beasley, T., 2015. "Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: A systematic review," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(12), pages 60-76.
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