Engaging and Recruiting Counties in an Experiment on Implementing Evidence-based Practice in California

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that implementation of evidence-based intervention and treatment models holds promise to improve the quality of services in child public service systems such as mental health, juvenile justice, and child welfare. Recent policy initiatives to integrate such researchbased services into public service systems have created pressure to expand knowledge about implementation methods. Experimental strategies are needed to test multi-level models of implementation in real world contexts. In this article, the initial phase of a randomized trial that tests two methods of implementing Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (an evidence-based intervention that crosses child public service systems) in 40 non-early adopting California counties is described. Results are presented that support the feasibility of using a randomized design to rigorously test contrasting implementation models and engaging system leaders to participate in the trial. Keywords Implementation; Randomized design; Community development team; Multidimensional treatment foster careA number of rigorous randomized trials have shown that theoretically based, developmentally and culturally sensitive interventions can produce positive outcomes for children and adolescents with mental health and behavioral problems (e.g., Olds et al. 2003;Henggeler et al. 1998). As the number and variety of well-validated interventions increases, the pressure also has increased from a broad range of stakeholders (e.g., scientific and practice institutes, state legislatures, public interest legal challenges) to incorporate evidence-based practices (EBP) into publicly funded child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems (NIMH 2001(NIMH , 2004. Despite the increasing availability and demand for well-validated interventions, it is estimated that 90% of public systems do not deliver treatments or services that are evidence-

Evaluación de la implementación del Programa Formación y Apoyo Familiar en Servicios Sociales

“…En esta línea, es necesaria cierta diversidad en la aplicación de los programas para conocer qué características de implementación se asocian a más beneficios. Análisis de implementación como el que se ha presentado constituyen un paso previo y necesario para identificar los aspectos de la implementación de un programa de promoción de parentalidad positiva que pueden moderar su eficacia (Chamberlain et al, 2008).…”

Contextual Influences and Strategies for Dissemination and Implementation in Mental Health

“…Like the ARC model, the CDT model uses consultants who work with teams and treatment developers to promote motivation, engagement, commitment, persistence, and competence in service of supporting fidelity and sustainment of an EBP (Chamberlain et al, 2008). The model involves seven core processes.…”

“…Contextual factors at the organizational and provider levels are also addressed by a core process focusing on procedural skill development to enhance the organizational, management, and personnel skills needed to generate and execute the implementation plan. Finally, at the interorganizational level, the development of peer-to-peer networks promotes engagement, commitment, and learning by reducing the risk of implementing novel practices, allowing for mutual assistance, and promoting a healthy level of competition between organizations (Chamberlain et al, 2008;Sosna & Marsenich, 2006). The CDT model has been used to support the implementation of several EBTs, such as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, Functional Family Therapy, and Aggression Replacement Training (Sosna & Marsenich, 2006), and empirical evaluations of this model are forthcoming (Chamberlain et al, 2008;Saldana & Chamberlain, 2012).…”

A Pragmatic Approach to Evidence-Based Public Health Policy

“…There is to date no sufficient evidence base of randomised controlled trials on how to implement specific interventions [19,20]. For this reason, talking about "evidence" here, is again misleading and could be counterproductive.…”