Failure of parents to attend and engage in treatment is a significant barrier to
implementing effective interventions in child and adolescent mental health.
Approaches to enhance treatment attendance and participation have targeted both
structural operations of the clinic and aspects of the therapeutic process.
Little research, however, has looked at clinicians’ use of strategies
to enhance treatment participation. Fifty-one mental health practitioners
completed measures of strategies to increase treatment participation among
families of conduct problem children. Client attendance was collected for each
clinician over a 1-month period. As hypothesized, therapists were more aware of,
and reported greater use of, therapy process compared to structural approaches
to increase treatment participation. Clinician ratings of usefulness, competence
and willingness to use therapy process strategies predicted client appointment
attendance. The results are discussed in relation to the importance of training
and supervision of professionals working with families in mental health services
targeting a range of strategies to enhance treatment participation.