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

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Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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 research-based 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.

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Notes

  1. One additional county involved in a class action lawsuit that precluded their participation was also excluded.

  2. Although not relevant to the current article, it is noteworthy that at the time of recruitment, system leaders were asked to complete a set of pre-implementation assessment measures. Baseline measures included: the Organizational Culture Survey (Glisson and James 2002) an adapted version of the Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC; Lehman et al. 2002), an adapted version of the MST Personnel Data Inventory (Schoenwald 1998), the Attitudes toward Treatment Manuals Survey (Addis and Krasnow 2000) and the Evidence-based Practice Attitude Scale (Aarons 2004). Those system leaders in counties who were randomized to Cohorts 2 and 3 will be asked to repeat these measures once or twice, respectively (a wait-list feature of the design).

  3. Some counties had more than one person from each service sector choose to consent to participate in the study (i.e., the discussions about whether or not to implement MTFC and completing the pre-implementation assessment battery).

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Acknowledgements

The principal support for this research was provided by NIMH grant MH076158 and the Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Administration for Children and Families. Other support was provided by NIMH grant MH054257; and NIDA grants: DA017592, DA015208, DA2017202, and K23DA021603.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research to Practice, 392 E. 3rd Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97401, USA

    Patricia Chamberlain, Lisa Saldana, John Reid & Courtenay Padgett

  2. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    C. Hendricks Brown & Wei Wang

  3. California Institute for Mental Health, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Lynne Marsenich & Todd Sosna

  4. TFC Consultants, Inc., Eugene, OR, USA

    Gerard Bouwman

Authors
  1. Patricia Chamberlain
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  2. C. Hendricks Brown
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  3. Lisa Saldana
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  4. John Reid
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  5. Wei Wang
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  6. Lynne Marsenich
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  7. Todd Sosna
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  8. Courtenay Padgett
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  9. Gerard Bouwman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Chamberlain.

Additional information

The first author is the Principal Investigator on the study, which was awarded to the Center for Research to Practice in Eugene Oregon. Subcontracts were awarded to the California Institute for Mental Health, the University of South Florida, and TFC Consultants, Inc. Patricia Chamberlain, John Reid and Gerard Bouwman are three of four owners of TFC Consultants, Inc., the company implementing MTFC in this study.

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Chamberlain, P., Brown, C.H., Saldana, L. et al. Engaging and Recruiting Counties in an Experiment on Implementing Evidence-based Practice in California. Adm Policy Ment Health 35, 250–260 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-008-0167-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-008-0167-x

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