Enhancing Clinical Research Culture in Community Settings

Behavioral health research improves practice application and validates evidence-based care, however, there are inherent challenges in translating controlled study protocols into direct service delivery. While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have long been held as the standard for evaluation of the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of new or emerging interventions, outcomes are commonly more focused on scientific rationale than direct treatment guidelines for the practice milieu. This fundamental difference highlights the gap between efficacy and effectiveness in balancing ideal research conditions and real-world clinical settings. Although embedding research into live practice setting poses challenges to strict internal validity criteria it offers a balanced opportunity to better assess actual practice value (external validity) while gaining real-time feedback from practitioners and patients that will ultimately inform improvements in intervention efficacy. This session offers a case study of a community based non-profit co-occurring treatment provider that has adopted a consistent posture of program access to host collaborative research studies evaluating a range of substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health (MH) interventions. Research topics summarized include Recovery Supportive Cognition, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Recovery Measurement Value, Demographic Treatment Access Barriers, and Recovery Housing Impact. Attendees will be able to review the partnerships, methods, and outcomes from these embedded research studies hosted by the agency as a foundation for understanding collaboration strategies and potential data value for their own organizations and patient populations.