Strategies for disseminating evidence-based practices to staff who treat people with serious mental illness

Evidence-based practices have not been widely implemented in real-world tre atment settings for several reasons, including existing state lows, adminis trative policies, funding priorities, advocates' concerns, and program staf fing. Dissemination strategies focus largely on program staffing and the qu estion of why treatment teams that are responsible for assisting people wit h serious mental illness fail to use evidence-based practices. In a review of the research literature, two barriers to staff dissemination emerge: ind ividual service providers lack the necessary knowledge and skills to assimi late these practices, and certain organizational dynamics undermine the tre atment teams' ability to implement and maintain innovative approaches. Thre e sets of strategies are useful for overcoming these barriers and fostering dissemination: packaging evidence-based practices so that specific interve ntions are more accessible and user-friendly to service prodders; educating providers about relevant knowledge and skills; and addressing the organiza tional dynamics of the team to facilitate the implementation of innovations . Research on dissemination is relatively new and is less well developed th an the clinical and services research enterprise that has led to evidence-b ased practices. Implications for future studies are discussed.