Special Seminars in Research Methods for Practice and Policy

Implementation Science (IS) focuses on methods and practices concerning the diffusion of research findings and evidence-based practices, and it seeks to understand healthcare policy and practice from the perspectives of healthcare professionals, service consumers and other stakeholders. This course will address disparities from a social justice perspective, in order to explore the uneven distribution of evidence-based practices across low-income and distressed communities. The course uses community engaged research as the lens through which students may explore barriers to and facilitators of implementation by learning multi-level integrated theoretical frameworks, implementation science methods and strategies (e.g., mixed methods and transdisciplinary collaboration), and how policies influence implementation. Students will produce scholarly work about adoption and implementation of evidence-based interventions and strategies for sustaining such implementations over time. This course will rely on theoretical approaches to help students understand the social, behavioral, economic and managerial barriers that might hinder effective implementation of evidence-based practices in various fields, such as mental health, child welfare, and HIV prevention.