Evidence-Based Practices: Shaping Mental Health Services Toward Recovery

Implementation Resource Kit User’s Guide

Foreword

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is a proud sponsor of this implementation resource kit for teaching illness management and recovery skills. As the federal agency responsible for promoting the quality, availability, and accessibility of services for people with mental illness, CMHS is responsible for identifying treatments for mental illness that work. The materials in this resource kit document the evidence for the effectiveness of illness management techniques and provide detailed materials to help communities to implement these techniques in real world settings. During development of the implementation resource kit, we placed special emphasis on 1) strengthening the consensus building process, 2) expanding the involvement of consumers and families, 3) including practical orientation to issues involving service organization and financing, and 4) insisting on paying careful attention to issues of ethnic and cultural sensitivity and overall cultural competence. We are well pleased with the result.

Many other organizations contributed to developing this implementation resource kit. This broad coalition of researchers, providers, administrators, policy makers, consumers and family members, gives the resource kit its strength and vitality. We are especially appreciative of the support provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which sponsored the early stages of the Project, when teaching evidence-based illness management and recovery skills was identified as a practice ready for widespread implementation. We agreed with the need to encourage practitioners and consumers to work together to empower people with serious mental illnesses to manage their symptoms and make informed decisions concerning their treatment. Evidence exists for the effectiveness of the individual techniques presented in this resource kit. It is an organized, standardized, and measurable package of proven-effective techniques that is critical for teaching consumers, administrators, and practitioners how to manage serious mental illness and move towards recovery.

This implementation resource kit reflects the current state-of-the-art concerning teaching of evidence-based illness management and recovery skills. It addresses both the “key ingredients” of the clinical model and many practical considerations essential for successful implementation. It also describes the need for each community to adapt the model to its particular needs and characteristics. Careful attention to unique community needs, coupled with fidelity to the key ingredients of the practice, equals successful implementation. The closer the kit user comes to following the implementation resource kit guidance, the more likely the practice will yield good results for consumers.

As mental health services research and evaluation progress, CMHS hopes to support the development of implementation resource kits for additional evidence-based practices, and to refine this and other previously developed resource kits to take new evidence into account. Indeed, evaluation of planned pilot projects for implementing this resource kit and associated implementation strategies will tell us much about how to make improvements in future versions. We hope that this and other evidence-based practice implementation resource kits will be helpful to communities across the nation as they strive to provide the most effective services possible for persons suffering from mental illness.

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