Public-academic partnerships: research in community mental health settings: a practicum experience for researchers.
Applying research findings to community mental health practices is slowed by provider concerns that research participants often differ from community populations in duration of illness, comorbid conditions, and illness severity. Selecting participants from community settings makes research results demonstrably relevant, but researchers and community providers can be mistrustful of one another, feeling that the other has little understanding of their needs and work. This mistrust impedes patient referrals for research. This column describes a program to increase researcher knowledge of community clinic procedures through structured interactions with clinic personnel. Follow-up interviews indicate improved attitudes and cooperation of researchers and community providers.
Miller
Alexander L
AL
Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA. millera@uthscsa.edu
Lopez
Linda
L
Gonzalez
Jodi M
JM
Dassori
Albana
A
Bond
Gary
G
Velligan
Dawn
D
D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D017144:Focus Groups; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education; D035502:Trust; D014495:Universities