Maximizing impact beyond fleeting success: a qualitative follow-up of how Swedish social-service counsellors experienced their Project Support work

Project Support (PS) is an evidence-based intervention for parents exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) whose children develop conduct disorders. PS was developed in the US and piloted and transferred to Sweden, where it has only been used in research. It is however important that interventions will be utilized beyond research context. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to explore how counsellors in the Swedish social service experienced their further use of PS. The study was based on digital interviews with 14 trained PS counsellors (13 women and one man) from two domestic violence shelters and five social service units who had previously participated in evaluating PS. A deductive thematic analysis using a theoretical framework based on implementation research and operant conditioning generated three propositions concerning compliance and adherence, efficacy and operant conditioning, and organizational support and readiness. The findings indicate that facilitating an intervention's successful and organization-sustaining implementation presupposes support from organizational structures having an active present leader as well as a team that encourages the intervention's use. Neither an individual counsellor nor a valued intervention such as PS is sufficient in itself in terms of sustainability and the ongoing use of the intervention, as contextual support is also crucial.