Group leaders: Dr. John Brekke and Dr. Erin Kelly
Project summary:
A major barrier to the implementation of evidence-based practices and integration of empirical evidence into practice is that research is often conducted without input from practitioners. This can result in interventions and findings that are difficult to implement in real word settings or have limited use for daily practice. To address these concerns, primary care providers have increasingly developed networks of practitioners and academics to develop research questions that are relevant to clinical practice, called practice-based research networks (PBRN). There are over 180 PBRNs that are registered nationally with AHRQ and they have conducted a great deal of valuable research for primary care settings.
Unfortunately, mental health providers have not developed these networks on the same scale, as fewer than 5% of PBRNs registered with AHRQ include mental health practitioners. In order to ensure that the field of mental health benefits from PBRNs, larger collaborations of practitioners and scientists are needed to help mental health professionals develop higher quality and more impactful research studies in conjunction with practitioners. We propose to start a collaboration among three mental health based PBRNs based in California, Colorado, and Ohio in order to improve the impact of research by these PBRNs. Clinician and academic participants in these networks will create a multidisciplinary team from psychiatry, psychology, and social work. We plan to use the collaborative time to conduct team building and information gathering to help the PBRNs collaboratively develop a grant proposal for submission to a federal funding agency on marijuana use and treatment by individuals with serious mental health issues.