Using implementation science principles to sustain trauma-informed innovations in program development

Abstract

Organizational interventions with staff, like evidence-based practices used with clients, demand fidelity to the implementation process. Just as with empirically supported treatments that identify specific components in a specific sequence, there now exists widely agreed upon stages of implementation that, if sequenced in a particular order, are more likely to result in sustainable outcomes. This chapter introduces an empirically-supported implementation process, highlighting the need to adhere to stages of implementation as well as the need for a conceptual framework or theory of change to drive the implementation of new trauma-informed practices within organizations. To further illustrate the phases of EBP implementation, an example of how the EPIS model might be used to implement new practices in child welfare systems is provided.