Implementing stakeholder-informed research in the substance abuse treatment sector: strategies used by Connections, a Canadian knowledge translation and exchange project

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

The Connections Research Team¹  Maureen Dobbins²  Alison Niccols¹  Wendy Sword²  Joanna Henderson³ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, McMaster Children's Hospital-Chedoke Site, Holbrook Building, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada;School of Nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada;Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 80 Workman Way, Toronto M6J 1H4, Canada

关键词: Policy-makers;    Service providers;    Women;    Addiction services;    Stakeholder-informed research;    Integrated knowledge translation;   

Others  :  833253
DOI  :  10.1186/1747-597X-9-21

 received in 2014-01-18, accepted in 2014-05-25,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Researcher-stakeholder collaboration has been identified as critical to bridging research and health system change. While collaboration models vary, meaningful stakeholder involvement over time (“integrated knowledge translation”) is advocated to improve the relevance of research to knowledge users. This short report describes the integrated knowledge translation efforts of Connections, a knowledge translation and exchange project to improve services for women with substance abuse problems and their children, and implementation barriers and facilitators.

Findings

Strategies of varying intensities were used to engage diverse stakeholders, including policy makers and people with lived experience, and executive directors, program managers, and service providers from Canadian addiction agencies serving women. Barriers to participation included individual (e.g., interest), organizational (e.g., funding), and system level (e.g., lack of centralized stakeholder database) barriers. Similarly, facilitators included individual (e.g., perceived relevance) and organizational (e.g., support) facilitators, as well as initiative characteristics (e.g., multiple involvement opportunities). Despite barriers, Connections’ stakeholder-informed research efforts proved essential for developing clinically relevant and feasible processes, measures, and implementation strategies.

Conclusions

Stakeholder-researcher collaboration is possible and robust integrated knowledge translation efforts can be productive. Future work should emphasize developing and evaluating a range of strategies to address stakeholders’ knowledge translation needs and to facilitate sustained and meaningful involvement in research.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Henderson et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Graham ID, Tetroe JM: Getting evidence into policy and practice: perspective of a health research funder. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2009, 18:46-50.
• [2]Greenhalgh T, Russell J, Ashcroft RE, Parsons W: Why national eHealth programs need dead philosophers: Wittgensteinian reflections on policymakers’ reluctance to learn from history. Milbank Q 2011, 89:533-563.
• [3]Henderson J, Milligan K, Niccols A, Thabane L, Sword W, Smith A, Rosenkranz S: Reporting of feasibility factors in publications on integrated treatment programs for women with substance abuse issues and their children: a systematic review and analysis. Health Res Policy Syst 2012, 10:1-13. BioMed Central Full Text
• [4]Martens PJ: The right kind of evidence-integrating, measuring, and making it count in health equity. J Urban Health 2012, 89:925-936.
• [5]Harrison MB, Graham ID: Roadmap for a participatory research-practice partnership to implement evidence. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs 2012, 9:210-220.
• [6]Ross S, Lavis J, Rodriguez C, Woodside J, Denis JL: Partnership experiences: involving decision-makers in the research process. J Health Serv Res Policy 2003, 8(Suppl 2):26-34.
• [7]Kothari A, Wathen CN: A critical second look at integrated knowledge translation. Health Policy 2013, 109:187-191.
• [8]Bowen S, Martens P: Demystifying knowledge translation: learn from the community. J Health Serv Res Policy 2005, 10:203-211.
• [9]Golden-Biddle K, Reay T, Petz S, Witt C, Casebeer A, Pablo A, Hinings CR: Toward a communicative perspective of collaborating in research: the case of the researcher-decision-maker partnership. J of Health Serv Res Policy 2003, 8(Suppl 2):20-25.
• [10]Henderson J, Brownlie EB, Rosenkranz S, Chaim G, Beitchman J: Integrated knowledge translation and grant development: addressing the research practice gap through stakeholder-informed research. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2013, 22:268-274.
• [11]Lomas J: Using ‘linkage and exchange’ to move research into policy at a Canadian foundation. Health Aff 2000, 19:236-240.
• [12]Parry D, Salsberg J, Macaulay AC: A Guide to Researcher and Knowledge-User Collaboration in Health Research. Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Ottawa; 2009.
• [13]Denis JL, Lomas J: Convergent evolution: the academic and policy roots of collaborative research. J Health Serv Res Policy 2003, 8(Suppl 2):1-6.
• [14]Minkler M: Community-based research partnerships: challenges and opportunities. J Urban Health 2005, 82(Suppl 2):ii3-ii12.
• [15]Dobbins M, Hanna SE, Ciliska D, Manske S, Cameron R, Mercer SL, O’Mara L, DeCorby K, Robeson P: A randomized controlled trial evaluating the impact of knowledge translation and exchange strategies. Implement Sci 2009, 4:1-16. BioMed Central Full Text
• [16]Henderson JL, MacKay S, Peterson-Badali M: Interdisciplinary knowledge translation: Lessons learned from a mental health-fire service collaboration. Am J Community Psychol 2010, 46:277-288.
• [17]Kothari A, Armstrong R: Community-based knowledge translation: unexplored opportunities. Implement Sci 2011, 6:1-6. BioMed Central Full Text
• [18]Lomas J: The in-between world of knowledge brokering. BMJ 2007, 334:129-132.
• [19]Niccols A, Dobbins M, Sword W, Henderson J, Smith P, Thabane L, Dewit D, Lipman E, Milligan K, Jack S, Schmidt L, Dooley M: Optimizing the health of women with substance use issues and their children. [https://www.connectionscanada.ca webcite]
• [20]Connections: Learning from the Field: Summary of Fall 2010 Networking Meetings. Hamilton; 2010.