Principal Investigator: Gregory A. Aarons

Funding: NIMH R01MH072961

The implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) into real-world human service settings is an important priority for improving the quality of services and outcomes for families. However, little is known about what factors facilitate or impede implementation, and how implementation of an EBP affects organizations and staff. Such "bi-directional effects" are likely to occur when introducing organizational and practice change in human service agencies. This application seeks to study the bi-directional effects of a statewide EBP implementation-taking place in Oklahoma. Bi-directional effects in the proposed study include the impact of contextual, organizational, and individual factors on implementation fidelity, and also the effects of EBP implementation on organizations and human service staff. The proposed work builds on an NIMH supported EBP effectiveness study of the "SafeCare: intervention designed to reduce child abuse and neglect. The EBP is a home-based, parent-mediated intervention being implemented statewide in Oklahoma and experimentally manipulating the SafeCare intervention compared to services as usual, with the effect of monitoring of services. Three aims are proposed for this study. The first aim uses mixed qualitative-quantitative methods to examine how the service context influences fidelity of EBP implementation. The second aim examines how the implementation of the EBP and associated fidelity monitoring, influence service provider perceived job autonomy, work attitudes, and turnover. The third aim examines how EBP implementation influences organizational climate, working alliance between service providers and consumers, and consumer outcomes. Fidelity and outcomes are being assessed in the current SafeCare effectiveness study. This study builds on this opportunity to study EBP implementation by adding longitudinal qualitative assessments of select staff, managers, and agency directors, and quantitative assessments of case managers and supervisors and organizational characteristics.

Last updated May 18, 2007
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Child & Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC)
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