title: Moving science into state child and adolescent mental health systems: Illinois' evidence-informed practice initiative.
abstract: In 2005, the Illinois State Mental Health Authority embarked on an initiative to close the gap between research and practice in the children's mental health system. A stakeholder advisory council developed a plan to advance evidence informed practice through policy and program initiatives. A multilevel approach was developed to achieve this objective, which included policy change, stakeholder education, and clinician training. This article focuses on the evidence-informed training process designed following review of implementation research. The training involved in-person didactic sessions and twice-monthly telephone supervision across 6 cohorts of community based clinicians, each receiving 12 months of training. Training content initially included cognitive behavioral therapy and behavioral parent training and was adapted over the years to a practice model based on common element concepts. Evaluation based on provider and parent report indicated children treated by training clinicians generally showed superior outcomes versus both a treatment-as-usual comparison group for Cohorts 1 to 4 and the statewide child population as a whole after 90 days of care for Cohorts 5 to 6. The results indicated primarily moderate to strong effects for the evidence-based training groups. Moving a large public statewide child mental health system toward more effective services is a complex and lengthy process. These results indicate training of community mental health providers in Illinois in evidence-informed practice was moderately successful in positively impacting child-level functional outcomes. These findings also influenced state policy in committing resources to continuing the initiative, even in difficult economic times.
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Juvenile Research , University of Illinois Chicago.
authors.forename: Amy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Starin
authors.forename: Marc S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Atkins
authors.forename: Kathryn C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Wehrmann
authors.forename: Tara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hesson-McInnis
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marinez-Lora
authors.forename: Renee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mehlinger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010290:Parents; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation