Engaging stakeholders for change: A learning community methodology for implementing evidence-based, trauma-focused care on college campuses.

Objective: Advances in implementation science have encouraged novel methods for disseminating and implementing evidence-based treatments. Mental health services offered to trauma-exposed students on college campuses are characterized by unique contextual, developmental, and cultural factors that must be considered to effectively disseminate and implement trauma-focused, evidence-based treatments (TF-EBTs). Informed by novel implementation designs, this project utilized a strategic stakeholder engagement method of creating a learning community to identify and adapt a TF-EBT for use in university counseling centers (UCCs).

Method: Project leads convened campus and community stakeholders included UCC clinicians, administrators, student life professionals, and students, to join researchers in a reciprocal collaboration to work toward dissemination and implementation. These stakeholders participated in a learning community that reviewed, selected, and adapted a TF-EBT and other tools for dissemination and implementation to UCCs and other campus professionals.

Results: There were a number of benefits and challenges of using the learning community as a method of dissemination and implementation. Benefits included context-specific knowledge sharing, clarification of the scope of trauma among college students, creation of helpful tools, emphasis on cultural competence in TF-EBTs, and facilitating connections between professionals. Challenges included balancing flexibility with progress toward project goals and recruitment and retention of stakeholders.

Conclusions: Stakeholder engagement is an integral component of dissemination and implementation efforts. The learning community method allowed for stakeholders to take an active part in adapting a TF-EBT for UCCs and can be utilized in other settings to aid in adoption and utilization of evidence-based treatments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).