Barriers and Facilitators in Implementing Illness Management and Recovery for Consumers with Severe Mental Illness: Trainee Perspectives

We conducted an on-line survey of clinicians who attended training on illness management and recovery (IMR) to identify the extent of implementation and barriers and facilitators of IMR practice. Of 89 direct service providers, 50.6% reported using the formal IMR curriculum, 25.8% reported using parts of IMR, and 23.6% never used IMR following training. Factor analysis of facilitator items revealed three internally consistent factors: agency leadership support, program level structure, and job-related structural support. Participants who used formal IMR endorsed a greater percentage of overall facilitators, and scored higher on each of the three factors of agency leadership support, program-level structures (e.g., fidelity reports) and job-related structures (e.g., presence of weekly supervision). In addition to training and toolkit materials, attention needs to be given to other elements to support IMR implementation.