Bridging evidence and practice

At BCMHSUS, we recognize that research – or evidence more broadly – doesn’t exist in a vacuum. To make meaningful improvements in care, research has to get into the hands of front-line health care professionals, clients and patients so that it can change how care is delivered and improve our health care system. The generation of new knowledge, including research, also needs to be informed by the expertise of those with lived and living experience as well as clinicians.  

This two-way exchange of research and expertise is commonly called knowledge translation and exchange.  

Knowledge translation and exchange is about understanding the most important challenges that need to be addressed and learning about the best available solutions. It also involves sharing that knowledge in ways that persuade and support people and groups to change.  

Knowledge translation and exchange can support changes to:

• Individual health behaviours
• Delivery of health care and related clinical services
• Health system planning and policy development  

To learn more about knowledge translation and exchange at BCMHSUS, you can read our Knowledge Translation and Exchange Framework below. 

Our knowledge translation and exchange activities fall into two main categories; initiatives to support BCMHSUS staff, and initiatives to support the provincial mental health and substance use community. 

BCMHSUS-focused knowledge translation and exchange activities 

• Knowledge Exchange on Reader Boards (KERB): Takes key messages from mental health and substance use research and breaks them down, making them easy to understand and share with clinicians and clients/ patients.
• Evidence in Care: Develops action-oriented briefs based on rapid reviews of the literature. Briefs are chosen based on priorities identified by clinicians, leaders, and others.
• BCMHSUS Research Challenge: Enables direct care staff to build skills in research and evidence-informed care by forming a practice-based question and answering it through a patient-oriented research project. 

Provincial knowledge and translation exchange activities 

• Centre for Learning: Hub for KTE learning resources to help students, residents, clinical and non-clinical professionals incorporate KTE into their work.
• Provincial Mental Health & Substance Use Network: Connects people with diverse perspectives, expertise and insights to understand and advance creative solutions to address complex problems and improve health system functioning.
• Provincial Mental Health & Substance Use ECHO: Online community of practice to develop knowledge, skills, and confidence among service providers who support people with complex mental health, substance use, and other issues
• Provincial Mental Health and Substance Use Learning Rounds: Bi-weekly virtual events that provide a platform for staff, clinicians, researchers, and others to gain a deeper understanding of issues specific to mental health and addiction treatment, and to inspire new ideas for improving care.
• Concurrent Disorders Conference: Annual conference dedicated to advancing knowledge and building capacity among mental health and substance use professionals who treat people with complex concurrent disorders. For more information, contact cfl_bcmhsus@phsa.ca.