Assessing Readiness to Adopt Evidence-Based Interventions: Lessons Learned from Home Visiting

Community-based agencies are increasingly being asked to implement evidence-based home visiting programs under the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program.   Some of these competitive grants are two years in duration.  However, findings from dissemination and implementation science caution against the success of rapid adoption and implementation of social interventions.  One primary influence on successful implementation is an organization’s level of readiness prior to beginning implementation.  Implementing evidence-based models typically requires robust organizational infrastructure that may include staff, training, supervision, data collection and reporting systems, and well-established connections in the community served.

Community-based agencies vary in their level of readiness to implement evidence-based models.  Home visiting service providers may come from a public health, social work, or community development perspectives.  Many agencies may be small, operating home visiting services they developed, and deeply rooted a particular community.  Other organizations may be large and adding a new method of service delivery or a new approach to home visits that are already being conducted.

This roundtable will introduce a framework for assessing readiness constructs that are necessary to support successful implementation of evidence-based home visiting models.  Five discussants will offer their perspectives on current challenges faced by community-based agencies who aspire to implement evidence-based home visiting programs.  Discussants will also discuss strategies that they believe will assist agencies in successfully adopting and implementing evidence-based models. 

Discussants will include:

• A senior member of a community-based agency delivering evidence-based home visiting programs in Washington, DC.
• A leader from the DC Department of Health, which is funding community-based agencies to deliver evidence-based home visiting services.
• A university-based center which is providing training and coaching to home visitors in Washington DC.
• A national evaluator involved with a home visiting Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network (CoIIN).
• A researcher with expertise in implementation science who is evaluating the scaling up of home visiting programs in DC.

Audience members will be invited to participate in the conversation, and to share their perspectives and experiences.  Note takers will be present to capture ideas presented.  The themes that emerge from the conversation will be written into a white paper that will be disseminated to session attendees and will be available to other relevant distribution networks (e.g., Society for Prevention Research, MIECHV).