Cross Training in Mental Health and Substance Abuse

The Benefits of Cross-training in Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Executive Summary

The proposed study primarily aims to identify the advantages of cross-training in mental health and substance abuse for the Mental Health Director to consider a cross-training program implementation . In general , cross-training allows employees to learn other responsibilities in addition to their own tasks because they share knowledge and skills address each other 's concerns or issues , and maximize their productivity while performing their primary functions . It is a beneficial means of having other human resources to complement or make

adjustments for an absentee whenever it is needed . This low-cost strategy allows organizations to enhance employees ' skills and increases knowledge about another field of expertise instead of looking for new applicants that would fit to the workload that is available . Given the advantages of cross-training for the enhancement of the twelve counsellors performance through learning knowledge and skills in both areas of mental health and substance abuse , the program will be facilitated by resource speakers and team leaders from each department for three months which will be conducted an hour before work periods which will be extended to ensure that their duties will not be affected . An estimated amount of 1000- 2500 will be for the trainers ' compensation , learning materials , and facilities to be used . It is expected that the counselors would be able to function effectively in another d of specialization whenever they are needed since they will be taught about different approaches and strategies in counselling clients with either any of the problems . The counselors will become competitive and flexible for the additional responsibilities

Proposal

Training workers different skills and providing them useful information about related functions will help organizations to maintain high level skills , make employees perform at optimum levels and master new jobs or skills , and become more productive (Kolak , 2003 Dubois Rothwell 2004 . Therefore , any organization that wishes to empower its employees needs to consider cross-training opportunities . The advantages of cross-training have been recognized to improve performance efficiency of health workers and professionals in the healthcare industry (Van Hook Ford , 1998 Sacks , Sacks Stommel , 2003 . Cross-training is one of the cost-effective development strategies in improving performance efficiency (Minter Thomas , 2000 Kolak , 2003

Research Questions

What are the advantages of cross-training in both mental health and substance abuse departments

How does cross-training improve the functions of the 12 counselors in the institution

How will the cross-training program be effectively implemented

Research Objectives

To review literature regarding cross-training and its advantages and implementation strategies

To conduct a survey through standardized questionnaire to analyse the perceptions and opinions of health care practitioners on the importance and benefits of cross-training

To interview key persons regarding the strategies in implementing cross-training

To formulate recommendations based on the findings and conclusions for the performance enhancement of the mental health and substance abuse counselors

Methodology

The study will employ a descriptive research design in investigating the concept of cross-training and the possible outcome of implementing such human resource management strategy . This...