A common obstacle to evidence-based treatment (EBT) uptake and transportability from lab to field is the disconnect between research and practice worlds. Indeed, clinical scientists and clinical practitioners may move in different realities, and there may be little interaction or collaboration between front-line public agency practice staff and university-based researchers. EBT's are typically developed through the methods of clinical science and are most strongly identified with university-based researchers and research culture. Dissemination and implementation efforts may be perceived by front-line practitioners as a top-down process at odds with their own clinical experience, clinical values and perceptions about treatment effectiveness. Research-practice partnerships (RPP's) represent a more collaborative approach to EBT implementation. RPP's are based on the core assumption that both researchers and front-line practitioners have common commitment to client outcomes, and that practitioners and researchers can become jointly engaged in an organized process of judging effectiveness and directing practice accordingly. The RPP model involves researchers and practitioners jointly defining desired programmatic outcomes, systematically measuring and examining those outcomes, comparing outcomes across time and between EBT vs. standard treatments, then feeding this information back into the RPP. The proposed project involves a collaboration between the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health's Systems of Care sites, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center in San Diego, the CMHS Phase-IV effectiveness trial headed by ORC-Macro and Brief Strategic Family Therapy intervention developers and trainers at the University of Miami Center for Family Studies. The study will compare provider attitudes toward and buy-in for an EBT, and related aspects of organizational climate and culture at two effectiveness trial sites, one with and another without the RPP intervention.
