Implementation: The Missing Link between Research and Practice. Implementation Brief. Number 1.

Implementation: The Missing Link Between Research and Practice There is a great deal of discussion about the need to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure. New roads, bridges, schools, and public buildings need to be built using the latest in green technology. Current infrastructure needs to be repaired and retrofitted. This brief makes the case that our human services infrastructure for effective implementation requires a similar investment so that effective programs and practices can be widely adopted and used to produce socially significant outcomes. In the United States, the federal government spends over $95 billion a year to fund research to help create new interventions and over $1.6 trillion a year to support services to citizens (Clancy, 2006). However, research results are not being used with sufficient quantity and quality to impact human services and have not provided the intended benefits to consumers and communities. For example, the Institute of Medicine (2001) found that human services typically are inconsistent, often ineffective, and sometimes harmful to consumers. These conclusions were echoed in reviews by the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999; 2001) and the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003). The failure to utilize research rests in large part on a faulty or non-existent implementation infrastructure. Current implementation attempts are not making use of the best implementation science related to practice, service, and system change. There are too many weak bridges to nowhere and too much hopeful, but faulty, thinking about how science will move to service.

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