Tuesday 14 May, 2019 to Wednesday 15 May, 2019
The Catholic University of American campus in Washington, DC
With special thanks to the co-sponsors:
The Catholic University of America
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Over the last decade, the field of dissemination and implementation science has emerged to help bridge the gap between science and practice to ensure that evidence-based practices and findings reach the populations who need them. As the field has evolved, the majority of focus has been on implementation (i.e., systematic processes, activities, and resources used to integrate interventions into usual settings), instead of dissemination (i.e., mechanisms and approaches used to communicate and spread information about interventions to target populations). Indeed, although more than 60 theories and frameworks for implementation currently exist, there are only a few theories or frameworks about dissemination. Furthermore, for those interested in learning more about implementation science, valuable resources exist such as the Implementation Research Institute (IRI) and the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC). In contrast, there are few resources available focusing on dissemination science.
Suicide is a serious public health problem and preventing suicide within the military is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC) is part of an ongoing strategy to integrate and synchronize DoD and civilian efforts to implement a multidisciplinary research approach to suicide prevention through funding cutting-edge research and facilitating the dissemination of these research findings to military settings. Questions exist about how to best communicate key research findings and their associated recommendations for changes to policy and practice.
To this end, MSRC developed a 1.5-day Dissemination Science Institute that brought together dissemination experts, suicide prevention researchers (especially those with MSRC-funded studies), and leadership from the DoD and other large health systems.