title: Partnering with mental health providers: a guide for services researchers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a 20-year delay between the development of effective interventions for individuals with severe mental illness and widespread adoption in public mental health care settings. Academic-provider collaborations can shorten this gap, but establishing and maintaining partnerships entail significant challenges.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper identifies potential barriers to academic-provider research collaborations and provides guidelines to overcome these obstacles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Authors from an academic institution and community mental health organization outline the components of their long-standing partnership, and discuss the lessons learned that were instrumental in establishing the collaborative model. Results Realistic resource allocation and training, a thorough understanding of the service model and consumer characteristics, systemic and bidirectional communication and concrete plans for post-project continuation are necessary at all project phases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A shared decision-making framework is essential for effective academic institution and community mental health agency collaborations and can facilitate long-term sustainability of novel interventions.
authors.affiliation: Thresholds-Dartmouth Research Center, Chicago, IL, USA. rlf098@mail.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Rochelle L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Frounfelker
authors.forename: Dror
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ben-Zeev
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Reedy
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Drake
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006282:Health Personnel; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011634:Public Health; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement; D040841:Resource Allocation; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States