Kauffman Best Practices Project Final Report - The Chadwick Center ...

STRATEGIES FOR ACCELERATING THE
PACE OF SPREAD OF BEST PRACTICES
At the present rate of diffusion, the identified best practices will take decades
to become everyday practice. If we are to accelerate the pace by which evidencebased
practices become everyday practice, we need to develop strategies that
overcome the barriers identified in the previous chapter and build upon our
understanding of the change and diffusion processes.
Our goal is to move potential providers of mental health services for abused
children along this continuum from unaware or under informed to actively
engaging in the delivery of the selected best practices.
TO ACCOMPLISH THIS:
1. We must seek to raise awareness of the Best Practices, and potential
practitioners of the Best Practices must believe in the efficacy of the
practice as well as their own efficacy in learning and applying the practice;
2. They must decide to seek to change their practice behavior;
3. They must prepare to apply the practice by learning the knowledge and
skills necessary to deliver the practice as intended; and
4. They must secure clients willing to accept the practice and funding
sources willing to support the intervention, and gain successful experience
in delivery of the Best Practice.
FIGURE 4
The first phase of this process involves making potential practitioners of the
best practice aware of their existence and the evidence of their efficacy.
TF-CBT, AF-CBT, and more recently PCIT have been the topics of multiple
journal and book publications, and training workshops at national child abuse
conferences for a number of years. These sessions typically last 90 to 180
minutes and can, at best, serve to acquaint the participants with the basic
principals of the intervention and raise their interest in learning more. Few
believe such training experiences impart the necessary knowledge and clinical
skill to actually implement these treatments. Consequently, it is unlikely that
this type of dissemination alone will result in meaningful change by large
cohorts of therapists or service delivery systems. These activities are, however,
important first steps in moving potential practitioners of these services into
the contemplation phase.
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