scholarly journals Accelerating the conceptual use of behavioral health research in juvenile court decision-making: study protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cusworth Walker ◽  
Kristin Vick ◽  
Noah R. Gubner ◽  
Jerald R. Herting ◽  
Lawrence A. Palinkas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Juvenile Court ◽  
Research Use ◽  
Criminal Legal System ◽  
Conceptual Research ◽  
Behavioral Health Research

Abstract Background The youth criminal-legal system is under heavy political scrutiny with multiple calls for significant transformation. Leaders within the system are faced with rethinking traditional models and are likely to benefit from behavioral health research evidence as they redesign systems. Little is known about how juvenile court systems access and use behavioral health research evidence; further, the field lacks a validated survey measure of behavioral health research use that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence dissemination interventions for policy and system leaders. Conceptual research use is a particularly salient construct for system reform as it describes the process of shifting awareness and the consideration of new frameworks for action. A tool designed to measure the conceptual use of behavioral health research would advance the field’s ability to develop effective models of research evidence dissemination, including collaborative planning models to support the use of behavioral health research in reforms of the criminal-legal system. Methods The ARC Study is a longitudinal, cohort and measurement validation study. It will proceed in two phases. The first phase will focus on measure development using established methods of construct validity (theoretical review, Delphi methods for expert review, cognitive interviewing). The second phase will involve gathering responses from the developed survey to examine scale psychometrics using Rasch analyses, change sensitivity analyses, and associations between research use exposure and conceptual research use among juvenile court leaders. We will recruit juvenile court leaders (judges, administrators, managers, supervisors) from 80 juvenile court jurisdictions with an anticipated sample size of n = 520 respondents. Discussion The study will introduce a new measurement tool for the field that will advance implementation science methods for the study of behavioral health research evidence use in complex policy and decision-making interventions. To date, there are few validated survey measures of conceptual research use and no measures that are validated for measuring change in conceptual frameworks over time among agency leaders. While the study is most directly related to leaders in the youth criminal-legal system, the findings are expected to be informative for research focused on leadership and decision-making in diverse fields.

scholarly journals Increasing the Number of Underrepresented Minority Behavioral Health Researchers Partnering With Underresourced Communities: Lessons Learned From a Pilot Research Project Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa H. Cruz ◽  
Matthew E. Borrego ◽  
Janet Page-Reeves
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Underrepresented Minority ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
Behavioral Health Research

To address critical health equity issues facing racially and ethnically diverse populations, it is essential to have researchers from similarly diverse backgrounds. Such researchers provide different perspectives that may lead to distinct research questions, novel interpretation of findings, and innovative recommendations for health promotion practice. There is a continuing need to increase the number of researchers leading health research studies who are from underrepresented minority populations (URMs). The literature demonstrates the effectiveness of mentoring for career development and the need to hone existing mentoring models. The TREE Center developed an innovative model for building capacity among early stage investigators, with a focus on URMs, to increase the inclusivity of the research pipeline. Our model involves community-engaged behavioral health research mentoring, career development, training for grantspersonship, and guidance for manuscript development and submission. A pilot project program provided opportunities for 10 early stage investigators to develop relationships with public health practitioners and other community partners, to obtain funding, to manage a complex pilot research project, and to generate preliminary data. Awardees worked with an academic mentor, a community mentor, and TREE Center faculty to conduct and disseminate their research. Lessons learned include the need to account for funding cycle timing, address challenges of recruiting URMs, consider overutilization of senior URM mentors, and overcome institutional bureaucracies that hinder transdisciplinary research across campuses. We discuss strategies for addressing these challenges. Our model is replicable and could be implemented, especially by academic programs interested in cultivating early stage URM investigators to conduct behavioral health research.

scholarly journals Legislators’ Sources of Behavioral Health Research and Preferences for Dissemination: Variations by Political Party

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 1105-1108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Purtle ◽  
Elizabeth A. Dodson ◽  
Katherine Nelson ◽  
Zachary F. Meisel ◽  
Ross C. Brownson
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Behavioral Health Research

Reconsidering symbolic use: a situational model of the use of research evidence in polarised legislative hearings

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-541
Author(s):  
Robert Asen ◽  
Whitney Gent
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Research Use ◽  
Situational Model ◽  
The Us ◽  
Modes Of Interaction ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Use Of Research

Participating in the growing scholarly attention to the roles of rhetoric and argumentation in policymaking, we examine how the use of research evidence operates in explicitly argumentative legislative hearings characterised by partisanship and polarisation. Conducting a rhetorical analysis of three legislative hearings in the US state of Wisconsin, we discovered that partisanship and polarisation did not influence argument and the use of research evidence uniformly. Instead, legislators and committee witnesses employed a range of uses for research evidence. To understand this usage, we have developed a framework that foregrounds situations of research use. These situations consist of conditions of polarisation (visibility, bipartisan leadership, familiarity, and controversy), modes of interaction (participation, cooperation and (dis)qualification), and conceptions of research use (necessity, relevance, and sufficiency). This situational model recognises that symbolic use provides the foundation for the use of research evidence in legislative settings. This model also reconfigures the relationship between research evidence and decision making.

scholarly journals Patients as Agents in Behavioral Health Research and Service Provision: Recommendations to Support the Learning Health System

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (05) ◽  
pp. 841-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah K. Galvin ◽  
Carolyn Petersen ◽  
Vignesh Subbian ◽  
Anthony Solomonides
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health System ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Learning Health System ◽  
Behavioral Health Research ◽  
Care System

AbstractAuthentic inclusion and engagement of behavioral health patients in their care delivery and in the process of scientific discovery are often challenged in the health care system. Consequently, there is a growing need to engage with and better serve the needs of behavioral health patients, particularly by leveraging health information technologies. In this work, we present rationale and strategies for improving patient engagement in this population in research and clinical care. First, we describe the potential for creating meaningful patient–investigator partnerships in behavioral health research to allow for cocreation of knowledge with patients. Second, in the context of behavioral health services, we explore the utility of sharing clinical notes to promote patients' agency in care delivery. Both lines of inquiry are centered in a Learning Health System model for behavioral health, where patients are agents in enhancing the therapeutic alliance and advancing the process of knowledge generation. Recommendations include genuinely democratizing the health care system and biomedical research enterprise through patient-centered information technologies such as patient portals. In research and technology development, we recommend seeking and tailoring behavioral health patients' involvement to their abilities, promoting patient input in data analysis plans, evaluating research and informatics initiatives for patients and clinicians, and sharing success and research findings with patients. In clinical practice, we recommend encouraging patients to read behavioral health notes on portals, engaging in proactive communication regarding note content, assessing outcomes including stress and anxiety in response to note content, and working with technology providers to support note-sharing governance and deployment.

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