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Presented at the 22nd Annual Research Conference

Community Mobilization toward Evidence Based Practice: Implementation and Testing of Two Strategies in Washington State

We're sorry, handouts are not available for this presentation.

Session Number: 22 Room: Salon A-B

Presentation Type: symposium

Chair: Eric J Bruns Discussant: Robert M Friedman

Synopsis: A well established gap exists between mental health practices found to be effective though research and what is actually available to children and families. Policies to increase use of evidence-based services are increasingly being adopted to address this gap and increase accountability; however, many agencies and communities lack the infrastructure, support, and general knowledge to work together to identify and implement programs that are effective as well as feasible. Even when these programs are identified and implemented, lack of buy-in by stakeholders, restricted availability, and poor fiscal sustainability often hinder potential for broad-based impact. This symposium will present two Washington State projects that aim to address these barriers through training, infrastructure development and community mobilization. The first, Partnerships for Success, provides a data-driven organizing framework to assist communities to conduct strategic planning and ensure sustainability around children’s mental health programming. The second, Project Focus, provides training and consultation to child welfare case workers to identify the mental health needs of children on their case load, and then actively partner with local clinicians who have been trained in evidence-based practices to address mental health needs of foster youth. Though distinct, both projects are part of an overall change agenda, representing public-academic partnerships to build more responsive, effective, and sustainable systems of care. In addition to descriptions of the projects, the symposium will present results and lessons learned from both projects’ extensive evaluation components.

Date: Monday, March 2, 2009

Session Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Project Focus: Effective Mental Health Practices for Washington’s Foster Children

Download Handouts: 18.5 mb pdf

Presenting: Shannon Dorsey; Suzanne Kerns; Kenyatta Etchison; Eric Trupin

All Authors for this paper: Shannon Dorsey; Suzanne Kerns; Kenyatta Etchison; Eric Trupin; Eric Bruns

Presentation Type: element of symposium

Synopsis: This presentation provides an overview of Project Focus, which aims to better link youth in foster care with appropriate evidence-based mental health practices to improve outcomes. The project involves training and consultation with caseworkers to increase appropriate referrals as well as training and consultation with local clinicians to increase commnunity capacity to provide evidence-based practices. We present the Project Focus research design and initial findings regarding feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness.

Partnerships for Success in Washington State: A community-Based Model to Effectively Implement Evidence-Based Practices for Youth

Download Handouts: 821 KB pdf

Presenting: Suzanne Kerns; Eric Bruns; Eric Trupin; Gary Enns

All Authors for this paper: Suzanne Kerns; Eric Bruns; Eric Trupin; Gary Enns

Presentation Type: element of symposium

Synopsis: The Partnerships for Success model is an organizing framework designed to assist communities conduct strategic planning and ensure sustainability around children’s emotional and behavioral health programming. This pilot study in two Washington State counties evaluated the impact of the model across multiple levels, including county, community, agency and individual-family levels. Evaluation strategies included key informant interviews, stakeholder surveys and pre-post outcome measures. Results provide preliminary evidence of a positive impact across all levels and areas for future model refinement.