(PS5-D78) Characterizing a Children’s Mental Health ALACRITY Center Through Social Network Analysis

Background: There is a youth mental health crisis in the United States that requires innovative, multi-level, and evidence-based approaches to improve care. Despite interdependencies that exist within and across publicly-funded service systems caring for children’s mental health, the siloed nature of these systems poses significant barriers and inefficiencies to providing high quality care for this vulnerable population. There is critical need for interaction, coordination, and alignment between groups of individuals (i.e., teams) within and across these service systems. Team effectiveness research (TER) stands to accelerate the efficiency and impact of evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation in public services for children with mental health needs.

Methods: The ImplementatioN Science and Team Effectiveness in Practice (IN STEP) Children’s Mental Health Research Center is a new NIMH Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) center with administrative and scientific infrastructure to bridge the fields of TER and implementation science for children’s mental health. An annual social network analysis is part of a multi-component evaluation to assess the extent to which the IN STEP Center is progressing toward its proposed reach, impact, and collaborative potential. Social network analysis is a method used to study the relationships, interactions, and/or communications between individual and/or units within social networks. The primary goal of this network analysis is to characterize Center membership, assess collaboration and mentoring relationships between Center members, and explore how relationships develop and change over time.

Results: All Center members (n=44; 100%) completed the survey. Members consist of investigators (n=19; 43%), trainees (n=19; 43%), and staff (n=6; 14) representing nine institutions, including UC San Diego (n=17; 39%), UCLA (n=7; 16%), San Diego State University (n=6; 14%), and UC San Francisco (n=5; 11%).  Center members were mostly female (82%) and mostly white (64%), followed by Asian (14%), Black or African American (5%), and an additional 14% being more than one race. Center members were predominately non-Hispanic (82%) than Hispanic (18%). Center members’ primary disciplines spanned 10 areas, with the majority (64%) of members reporting a terminal degree in clinical psychology, followed by developmental psychology (7%), and ~5% in industrial-organizational psychology, public health, statistics, sociology, and anthropology, each. Most members claimed an intermediate (36%) or advanced (43%) experience level in implementation science. In contrast, most members identified as a novice (32%) or beginner (46%) in TER. Network statistical modeling and visualizations will also be presented.

Discussion: Continued annual evaluation using social network analysis will explore the reach and impact of the IN STEP Center on collaborative relationships that merge TER and implementation science to children’s mental health, and identifying opportunities to engage new Center members, particularly from underrepresented racial/minority groups and research disciplines.