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The Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (BRISC): A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Feasibility, Acceptability, and Contextual Appropriateness

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Abstract

To maximize impact across the broad spectrum of mental health needs exhibited by youth in school settings, interventions must be designed to be effective and efficient and demonstrate good fit with the educational context. The current paper reports on the second phase of an iterative development process for a short-term “Tier 2” intervention for use by school-based mental health providers—the Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (BRISC)—using mixed qualitative and quantitative analyses to evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness while emphasizing student experiences. This phase was intended to yield information to drive further protocol refinement and testing across subsequent phases. We describe the rationale for, development of, and formative testing of the BRISC intervention. Results suggest that BRISC may be feasible to deliver, acceptable to students, and appropriate to the school context. In particular, the BRISC process appears to be effective in enhancing student engagement in the intervention and identifying and addressing individualized student needs. These findings and directions for further enhancing BRISC’s potential for positive impact highlight how treatment development may benefit from initial, small-scale evaluations focused on both client and implementation outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

This publication was made possible in part by funding from Grant Number R305A120128 awarded by the Institute of Education Sciences and Grant K08 MH095939 awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Drs. Lyon and Dorsey are investigators with the Implementation Research Institute (IRI), at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, through an award from the National Institute of Mental Health (R25 MH080916) and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research & Development Service, Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI). The authors would like to thank all the other members of the BRISC Development Team, including Lucy Berliner, Doug Cheney, Janine Jones, Kevin King, Kelly Thompson, and Nancy Namkung.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, 6200 NE 74th St., Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Aaron R. Lyon, Eric J. Bruns, Kristy Ludwig, Ann Vander Stoep, Michael D. Pullmann, Shannon Dorsey, John Eaton, Ethan Hendrix & Elizabeth McCauley

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  1. Aaron R. Lyon
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  2. Eric J. Bruns
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  3. Kristy Ludwig
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  4. Ann Vander Stoep
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  8. Ethan Hendrix
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  9. Elizabeth McCauley
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Correspondence to Aaron R. Lyon.

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Lyon, A.R., Bruns, E.J., Ludwig, K. et al. The Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (BRISC): A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Feasibility, Acceptability, and Contextual Appropriateness. School Mental Health 7, 273–286 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-015-9153-0

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