Group clinical supervision in adult mental health settings

INTRODUCTION: Supervision in mental health services (MHSs) has a long tradition. Aim of this review was to analyze papers focused on group clinical supervision in adult psychiatric services. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A systematic review of the literature was performed, according to the PRISMA guidelines. The review protocol was registered on PROSPERO. Papers were electronically identified through a database search updated up to October 31, 2020, on PubMed, PsycInfo, Scopus and Web of Science. English-written papers were eligible if reporting any data measuring directly or indirectly the outcome of supervision on mental health professionals. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Twenty-five articles were included: three randomized controlled trials, one cohort study, one cross-sectional and twenty qualitative studies. Although supervision is widely employed among MHSs, the number of studies documenting its diffusion and efficacy is limited. Furthermore, poor operational definitions of supervision limit comparisons among studies. Participants generally reported an improved sense of professional competence and expressed a clear preference for a supervisor coming from outside the work environment. This choice may impact on budget, therefore future studies should address also cost effectiveness of group supervision. CONCLUSIONS: Improved sense of competence, widely reported by participants, should encourage further studies to better investigate supervision cost; therefore, future studies should also address effectiveness in clinical contexts. In particular, professionals taking part to supervision found that a supervisor coming from outside their organizations was more effective, but this may bring additional costs.