Abstract
Purpose: Mechanisms of Change (MoC) explain how strategies used to enhance the uptake of evidence in social and human services enable change in the behaviors of individual practitioners, organizational leaders or entire organizations, and systems. One such strategy is the use of implementation support practitioner (ISPs). This study examines the mechanisms through which ISPs facilitate behavior supportive of the implementation of research-supported interventions. Methods: A systematic, integrative review was conducted. The conceptualization of MoCs built on a model by Dalkin and colleagues. Results: Based on a unique combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, ISPs install trust in and among their stakeholders and utilize this trust to promote meaningful and relevant learning; provide ongoing opportunities for learning, reflection, and support; help to span boundaries; and positively motivate stakeholders. Discussion: ISPs do not represent a short cut to better implementation. They represent an additional implementation challenge that requires dedicated attention and resources.
Highlights
We have previously pointed to the broad range of labels used to characterize implementation support roles, and the considerable overlap and similarities in how their key functions have been defined (Albers, Metz, & Burke, 2020) and suggested for this diverse terminology to be unified under the label “implementation support practitioner” (ISP). We described this role and the way in which it may help to enable change in real world social and human services in the form of a preliminary program logic, which has informed the conduct of a systematic, integrative review focused on the diverse literature on implementation support roles
As part of step (1) in the integrative review process, outlined above, a gap in the knowledge about Mechanisms of Change (MoC) was identified making it difficult to explain how the implementation support provided by ISPs may be effective in promoting changes in the behavior of individuals, organizations, and systems operating in human and social services
Discussion and Applications to Practice. The findings from this integrative review suggest that implementation support practitioners, through the intentional use of their knowledge, skills, and attitudes, may enable implementation behavior in the individuals, organizations, and systems they support
Summary
The aim of this review was to refine the program logic and to detail how ISPs may make a difference to the contexts in which they work and to the implementation of RSIs. The aim of this review was to refine the program logic and to detail how ISPs may make a difference to the contexts in which they work and to the implementation of RSIs With these gaps and challenges as its starting point, the aim of this project was (a) to identify and describe MoCs suggested by the ISP literature as unfolding between ISPs and their stakeholders and (b) to describe the conditions under which these MoCs may enable changes in the ways in which ISP stakeholders promote, select, and use RSIs
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