Interdisciplinary Knowledge Translation: Lessons Learned from a Mental Health: Fire Service Collaboration

Abstract

Collaborative approaches are being increasingly advocated for addressing a variety of health, mental health and social needs for children, youth and families. Factors important for effective knowledge translation of collaborative approaches of service delivery across disciplines, however, have not been rigorously examined. TAPP-C: The Arson Prevention Program for Children is an intervention program for child and adolescent firesetters provided collaboratively by fire service and mental health professionals. The present study examined the adopter, innovation, and dissemination characteristics associated with TAPP-C implementation, protocol adherence and extent of collaboration by 241 community-based fire service professionals from communities across Ontario. Results revealed that dissemination factors are particularly important for understanding program implementation, adherence and cross-discipline collaboration. Moreover, the findings of this study show significant benefits to both within discipline (intra-disciplinary) and across discipline (interdisciplinary) knowledge translation strategies.

Dissemination and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices for Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Systematic Review

“…Inner context factors that emerged as important beyond those identified in the above experimental studies include the fit (or perceived fit) of the intervention with the organization, 32,35–37 provider self-efficacy, 38 the availability of appropriate training, 38,39 adequate resources (including personnel and funding), 39–43 use of locally and nationally-generated data for the decision making process, 37,41,44 leadership (e.g., leadership skills, administrator support of quality improvement goals, attitudes towards EBP implementation), 37,39,42,43,45 and organizational culture and climate. 43,46 Some studies suggest that providers earlier in their careers had more positive attitudes towards EBPs and were more likely to implement them, 42,46 while others suggested that more experienced providers were more likely to actually adopt an intervention.…”

“…43,46 Some studies suggest that providers earlier in their careers had more positive attitudes towards EBPs and were more likely to implement them, 42,46 while others suggested that more experienced providers were more likely to actually adopt an intervention. 35 Outer contextual factors associated with preparation included the quality of interorganizational networks, 38,47 leadership from policymakers at the state level, 41,48 and the availability of implementation materials from nationally recognized sources. 41 …”

“…67,72–74 Additional inner contextual factors that were related to more successful implementation in these studies included those related to providers characteristics, 75 including sociodemographics, 35 experience, 43,76 disciplinary background, 35 exposure to 32,38 and attitudes towards EBPs, 35,69,71,77–80 sense of self-efficacy, 32,38,68,77 opportunities for reward/achievement, 67,80 concerns about competing demands [which reduced likelihood of implementation] 71,79 and ethnic matching of therapist and youth. 78,81 Supervisor factors associated with implementation included experience with EBPs and 82 relationships with supervisees, 70 while organizational factors included leadership, 65,66,79,80,83 organizational culture and climate, 36,73,84 perceived fit of an EBP with the organization’s mission, 21,25, 53,63,80 organizational support for implementation, 43,65,67–69,79,83 and effectively addressing institutional barriers 68,79,85 such as financing, 65,75,80 resources, 36 readiness to change, 35 and governance [i.e., for-profit organizations were more likely to implement EBPs than nonprofits].…”

“…Outer contextual factors identified in these studies that supported the implementation process include interorganizational/provider networks, 38,79,80 external ratings/report cards, 93 and interactions between organizations and/or individual providers and EBP developers. 89 …”

An ARC-Informed Family Centered Care Intervention for Children’s Community Based Mental Health Programs

“…Such opportunities for cross-program learning are a key component of the popular collaborative utilized throughout health care to promote uptake of new practices (Nadeem et al 2014). Such interorganizational networks have also been identified as facilitators of implementation in other human services organizations (Henderson et al 2010; Langley et al 2010; Palinkas and Aarons 2009). Finally, regular feedback and support from the intervention specialists, involving a mix of cross-program groups and individualized program consultations and coaching were critical to reinforce real-time learning and transfer skills for application to local program context.…”