Developing effective research-practice partnerships for creating a culture of evidence-based decision making

With growing evidence that treatment as usual may have limited effectiveness in mental health the pressure on service providers to be accountable and produce evidence as to the effectiveness of their services has increased. Measurement Feedback Systems, such as the Contextualized Feedback System (CFS), have the potential to be powerful tools for service providers in assessing their own effectiveness at multiple levels with an organization. These systems represent an amalgamation of the data driven world of science and the experience driven world of clinical practice. However, the synthesis of these two worlds is not without significant challenges as these two very different cultures can easily clash. The key for successful collaboration in developing and implementing Measurement Feedback Systems is a good university-practice partnership that has a strong foundation in common goals and the positive relationships among its members. In addition, the partnership needs to be flexible so that it can adapt to new challenges and continuously grow with each obstacle. These are some of several lessons learned the authors of this article will share as part of their experience with developing and implementing CFS in one of the largest behavioral health service providers in the U.S.