Enhancing team effectiveness for a collaborative school-based intervention for ADHD

Project Summary – (R01 – ADHD Intervention in Schools)
The proposed project aims to integrate team-based implementation strategies to enhance implementation of the
Collaborative Life Skills Program (CLS), an established school-based intervention for children with ADHD in
grades 2-5. We will tailor three empirically-supported team development interventions, Team Charters, Team
Communication Training (Student Handoff Protocols), and Team Performance Monitoring, and integrate them
with the CLS protocol to create a team-enhanced CLS implementation protocol (CLS-T). Team Charters are a
written document developed collaboratively by the team at the outset of their work together outlining
expectations, goals, roles and responsibilities, and relevant policies and procedures for team collaborative
operations. Research shows that Team Charters strengthen affective emergent states, such as trust and
cohesion among team members, as well as cognitive emergent states, such as shared mental models. They
also strengthen team processes, such as goal specification, communication, and coordination to optimize team
effectiveness. Handoff protocols are widely used interventions for ensuring continuity in patient care and
minimizing errors in medical settings. They have also been found to improve affective (e.g., trust, cohesion) and
cognitive (e.g., shared mental models, situation awareness) emergent states among team members, enhancing
team communication and coordination. Finally, Team Performance Monitoring provides feedback to teams that
can motivate performance, provide opportunities for adaptation in the event of challenges, and prompt
communication among team members. We will conduct a Hybrid Type III cluster randomized trial in 24 schools
in two large urban school districts, to evaluate whether CLS-T implementation results in improved implementation
outcomes and child outcomes in comparison to standard CLS implementation. The specific aims are to 1)
Evaluate the effectiveness of CLS-T implementation, relative to standard CLS, on implementation outcomes; 2)
Evaluate the effectiveness of CLS-T implementation, relative to standard CLS implementation, on child
outcomes; and 3) Use mixed-methods to examine if key team-based mechanisms are engaged by CLS-T
implementation, relative to standard CLS implementation, and mediate its effects on implementation outcomes
and child outcomes.

Grant Number: 5P50MH126231-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: LAUREN BROOKMAN-FRAZEE