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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) training which was provided to community agency staff (N=18) implementing DBT in the community with street-involved youth.

Staff participated in a multi-component approach to training which consisted of webinars, online training, self-study manuals, and ongoing peer consultation. To evaluate assess the effectiveness of the training, questionnaires assessing evaluating DBT skills knowledge, behavioral anticipation and confidence, and DBT skills use, were completed at baseline, immediately post-training, four to six months post-training, and 12-16 months post-training. Additionally, the mental health outcomes for youth receiving the DBT intervention are reported to support the effectiveness of the training outcomes.

Results demonstrate that the DBT skills, knowledge, and confidence of community agency staff improved significantly from pre to post-training and that knowledge and confidence were sustained over time. Additionally, the training was clinically effective as demonstrated by the significant improvement in mental health outcomes for street-involved youth participating in the intervention.

Findings suggest that this evidence-based intervention can be taught to a range of staff working in community service agencies providing care to street-involved youth and that the intervention can be delivered effectively.

These findings help to close the knowledge-practice gap between evidence-based treatment (EBT) research and practice while promoting the implementation of EBT in the community to enhance positive youth outcomes.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has subjected a considerable strain on the healthcare (HC) systems around the world. The most affected countries are developing countries because of their weak HC infrastructure and meagre resources. Hence, building the resilience of the HC system of such countries becomes essential. Therefore, this study aims to build a resilience-based model on the HC sector of Pakistan to combat the COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.

The study uses a novel hybrid approach to formulate a model based on resilient attributes (RAs) and resilient strategies (RSs). In the first step, the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, i.e. full consistency method (FUCOM) is used to prioritize the RAs. Whereas, the fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) is used to rank the RSs.

The findings suggest “leadership and governance capacity” to be the topmost RA. Whereas “building the operational capacity of the management”, “resilience education” and “Strengthening laboratories and diagnostic systems” are ranked to be the top three RSs, respectively.

The model developed in this study and the prioritization RAs and RSs will help build resilience in the HC sector of Pakistan. The policymakers and the government can take help from the prioritized RAs and RSs developed in this study to help make the current HC system more resilient towards the current COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.

A new model has been developed to present a sound mathematical model for building resilience in the HC sector consisting of FUCOM and fuzzy QFD methods. The main contribution of the paper is the presentation of a comprehensive and more robust model that will help to make the current HC system of Pakistan more resilient.