Developing partnerships in mental health to bridge the research-practitioner gap

Co-creation of new knowledge: Good fortune or good management?

BACKGROUND

Potential solutions to bridging the research practice gap include collaborative frameworks and models. Yet there is little evidence demonstrating their application in practice. In addressing this knowledge gap, this in-depth case study explored how the co-creation of new knowledge framework and its four collaborative processes (co-ideation, co-design, co-implementation, and co-evaluation) are utilised to support people who had attempted suicide through an Australian psychoeducational program known as Eclipse.

METHODS

Using a case study design and a thematic analysis methodology, multiple sources of qualitative data (collaborative group discussion, personal communications) were analysed inductively and deductively to examine the implementation of co-creation and explore the perspectives of researchers and stakeholders about co-creation and collaborative relationships.

RESULTS

Three broad themes were identified: (1) understanding the language and practice of co-creation, (2) perception of trust formation, and (3) the value of co-creation opportunities. Ultimately, implementing co-creation with or between researchers, industry and people with lived experience requires trust, reciprocity, good fortune, and good management. While implementing co-creation, the co-creation framework was revised to include additional elements identified as missing from the initially proposed framework.

CONCLUSION

Co-creation of new knowledge poses many challenges to researchers and stakeholders, particularly regarding its "messiness" and non-linear approach to implementation and evaluation. However, as this case study demonstrates, it has the potential to become an alternative framework of best practice for public health interventions in third sector organisations, most notably as it eliminates the often-lengthy gap reported between research evidence and translation into practice. The research highlights the need for co-creation to further study its effectiveness in integrating research and service delivery to generate new knowledge. This may lead to a cultural and behavioural change in the service provider's approach to research, offering better outcomes for providers, clients, policymakers, universities, and funders.

European mental health research resources: Picture and recommendations of the ROAMER project

As part of the Roamer project, we sought to have a picture of the available mental health research (MHR) funding, capacity-building and infrastructures resources and to establish consensus-based recommendations that would allow an increase of European MHR resources and enable better use and accessibility to them. The methods fell into three sections (i) a review of the literature, (ii) a mental health-related keywords search within the Cordis^®, On-Course^® and Meril^® databases which contain information on European research funding, training and infrastructures. These reviews provided an overview that was presented to (iii) two experts workshops with 28 participants drawn from academic which identified gaps and produced recommendations. The literature review illustrates the debates in the scientific community on funding, training and infrastructures. The database searches estimated the fraction of health research resources available for mental health. Eight overarching goals for MHR resources were identified by the workshops; each of them was carried out with several practical recommendations. Resources for MHR are scarce considering the burden of mental disorders, the high rate of return of MHR and the under-investment of the field. The recommendations are urgently warranted to increase resources and their optimal access and use.

Examining predictors of initial outpatient psychiatric treatment for conduct problems in youth: A records review

PURPOSE

To investigate predictors of conduct problem (CP) treatment in an outpatient child psychiatry clinic.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Medical records (N = 78) of youth with CPs (71% male; mean age = 9.9 years) were analyzed to determine how treatment history, race, gender, travel distance, aggression symptoms, internalizing disorder symptoms, and age of diagnosis influenced initial treatment decisions.

FINDINGS

Severity of aggression symptoms and travel distance significantly increased the likelihood that initial treatments included psychotropic medication. Travel distance also moderated the relationship between history of psychosocial intervention for CPs and treatment recommendations.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Adhering to treatment guidelines for youth with CPs is essential for furthering evidence-based psychiatric nursing care.

The feasibility of telephone follow-up interviews for monitoring treatment outcomes of Australian residential drug and alcohol treatment programs

BACKGROUND

Telephone follow-up interviewing is one method of monitoring treatment outcomes of individuals involved in drug and alcohol treatment programs. The present study is the first to examine the feasibility and generalizability of data obtained from telephone follow-up interviews after drug and alcohol treatment in Australia.

METHODS

Participants attended 1 of 8 Salvation Army Recovery Service Centres where staff administered outcome measures at intake. Three-month postdischarge telephone follow-up interviews were conducted by researchers from the Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong.

RESULTS

A sample of 700 clients was obtained for follow-up (582 males; 118 females). A 51% follow-up rate was achieved at a cost of US$82 per completed interview. No significant differences in baseline characteristics between responding and nonresponding participants were found.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the telephone methodology was shown to be feasible and relatively inexpensive. However, the introduction of outcome measures at the service level in parallel with follow-up data collection procedures complicated the collection of response data. The burden of introducing outcome measures in residential services may be reduced by utilizing a phased implementation strategy.

[The Citizen Committee as a co-management strategy in participatory research in the field of mental health in Quebec]

The theme of users' rights has become a central issue in contemporary debate on mental health. Drawing from the experiences of "Comitê Cidadão" (Citizen Committee), consisting of users and family members in an international research alliance between Brazil and Canada, an attempt is made to discuss the effects of the experience of co-management of the so-called Autonomous Medication Administration (GAM - Gestão Autônoma da Medicação) participatory research project on these individuals. By means of a detailed description of the background of the Committee and interviews and analysis of the voice transcriptions of its members, the problems raised by the relation of dialogue between scientific knowledge and users' knowledge are examined in a methodological approach of participatory research. As a result of the research, it was established that the experience of the Citizens Committee in co-management of health research can be propitious to the increase in the degree of autonomy, greater empowerment and the exercise of leadership and citizenship, with the consequent emergence of subjects with rights.

Using principles of practice-based research to teach evidence-based practice in social work

Social work educators are in a good position to encourage the uptake of evidence-based practice more widely throughout the profession. Despite increasing attention being paid to it within professional literature, it seems to be making inroads to practice only very slowly. This article interprets that slow uptake as a function of confusion about the definition and scope of evidence-based practice, and also as an expression of the distance between the practice and research communities within the profession. Practice-based research is introduced as a framework that responds to both of these concerns. Finally the importance of social work education as a catalyst of evidence-based practice is articulated and the five-step evidence-based practice process is explicated with considerations from practice-based research incorporated along with pedagogical implications.