Practice Profiles

What is a Practice Profile?

Guided by the extensive experience of the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), the CBH Knowledge Center leads efforts in Massachusetts to improve children’s behavioral health care delivery and practice by using an implementation science framework. Implementation science is a body of research suggesting that how a program or practice is just as important as what is being implemented.

Using the NIRN’s implementation science framework, the Center supported the development of practice profiles for three publicly funded home and community-based behavioral health services for youth and families: In-Home Therapy (IHT), In-Home Team Based Treatment, and Young Adult Peer Mentoring. A practice profile is a tool that breaks down large concepts such as “engagement” into discreet skills and activities that can be taught, learned, and observed. A practice profile operationalizes the “what” of a service by specifying the core elements of a service and then breaking down those elements to the level of saying and doing. Practice profiles are developed through a rigorous stakeholder engagement process and are further informed by the research literature. The completed profile can be used to develop a range of implementation supports and activities, including staff training and supervision activities, brochures and other educational materials about the service, and/or quality improvement activities.