Implications of Translational Research for the field of Residential Child Care

The field of residential child care has been influenced by the emphasis on implementing evidence-based practice. Using evidence-based practices and programs require residential child care and the larger field of child welfare... [ view full abstract ]

The field of residential child care has been influenced by the emphasis on implementing evidence-based practice. Using evidence-based practices and programs require residential child care and the larger field of child welfare to assess its basic principles, its theories of change, and “what works” in practice. The growing field of implementation science acknowledges that the introduction of research and evidence-based programming can meet with skepticism and resistance from practitioners, especially when the programing requires new skills and mindsets to adhere to the principles and the protocols of the program and/or on-going research and evaluation to ensure practitioner and programmatic effectiveness.

This presentation will summarize a new model of translational research (Hamilton, 2014) focused on youth development that engages professionals and the organization within which they work in the process of understanding the needs of the youth as well as developing, implementing, and utilizing evidence-based programs. The model helps to sharpen a practitioner’s understanding of human behavior through basic research, as well as, the need to find clinical and real world application for this basic research. A unique feature of the model is that it incorporates practitioners and researchers in a full partnership to find not only what works, but also how do we use and sustain “what works” in our real world engagements with children and families. We view both translational research and evidence-based programs through the lens of innovation, especially the introduction of innovation within organizational settings.

Translational research demands that researchers and practitioners forge relationships that are collaborative and reciprocal. Traditional applied research has typically viewed practitioners as product recipients and data sources rather than full partners in the generation of knowledge. Full partnerships call for stakeholder participation that is more than perfunctory and cosmetic, or simply subjects of work done by researchers. In the Hamilton model of translational research, practice is placed in the center of the model because it plays a central and active role in all of scientific inquiry, knowledge generation as well as researching what works in practice and how we use what works. All the elements of the model are reciprocally interconnected. In this way, practice informs science, and just as importantly, science informs practice.