Given rising student mental health concerns, there is a need for efficacious school mental health services. However, school decision-makers inconsistently utilize research evidence when selecting services, preferring guidance from peers and colleagues. The DES decision-making software acts as an information broker to make research evidence more relevant to a local school administrator by simulating how various intervention and assessment choices will result in the use of school resources, including the time, cost, and effectiveness of the treatment. von der Embse and colleagues propose a three-year mixed-methods study to validate the DES software and test strategies to improve the use of research evidence using the DES model. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: DES model with technical assistance condition, DES model with information only condition, and a business-as-usual condition. The team will share a series of white papers and policy briefs with federal and state-level policymakers, do a joint release of the DES as a free tool within the Florida Department of Education and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction websites, make the DES model accessible to school and district administrators widely, and provide technical assistance guides for researchers through the national School Mental Health Collaborative.
Does utilizing a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model improve the local relevance and use of research evidence for school-based mental health decision-making?
