title: Adoption of innovative and evidence-based practices for children and adolescents in state-supported mental health clinics: a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study examined how mental health clinic administrators decided whether or not to adopt evidence-based and other innovative practices by exploring their views of implementation barriers and facilitators and operation of these views in assessment of implementation costs and benefits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 75 agency chief executive officers and program directors of 34 New York State-licensed mental health clinics serving children and adolescents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three interconnected themes relating to barriers and facilitators were identified, namely costs and benefits associated with adoption, capacity for adoption, and acceptability of new practices. The highest percentage of participants (86.7%) mentioned costs as a barrier, followed by limited capacity (55.9%) and lack of acceptability (52.9%). The highest percentage (82.3%) of participants identified available capacity as a facilitator, followed by acceptability (41.2%) and benefits or limited costs (24.0%). Assessment of costs and benefits exhibited several principles of behavioural economics, including loss aversion, temporal discounting use of heuristics, sensitivity to monetary incentives, decision fatigue, framing, and environmental influences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results point to opportunities for using agency leader models to develop strategies to facilitate implementation of evidence-based and innovative practices for children and adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Children, Youth and Families, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 669 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0411, United States of America. palinkas@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Lawrence A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Palinkas
authors.affiliation: Department of Children, Youth and Families, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 669 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0411, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mee Young
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Um
authors.affiliation: Department of Children, Youth and Families, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 669 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0411, United States of America.
authors.forename: Chung Hyeon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ka Ho Brian
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Chor
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Serene
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Olin
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Horwitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kimberly E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Hoagwood
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D009518:New York; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: Adoption; Child and adolescent mental health; Evidence-based treatments and practices; Innovation; Mixed methods