The State Health Authority Yardstick (SHAY)

State mental health authorities have a leadership role in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs), but few instruments are available to assess the impact of this role. We describe the development of the State Mental Health Authority Yardstick (SHAY), a behaviorally anchored instrument designed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Community Mental Health Journal Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 228 - 237
Main Authors: Finnerty MT, Rapp CA, Bond GR, Lynde DW, Ganju V, Goldman HH
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Springer Nature Jun2009
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:State mental health authorities have a leadership role in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs), but few instruments are available to assess the impact of this role. We describe the development of the State Mental Health Authority Yardstick (SHAY), a behaviorally anchored instrument designed to assess state-level facilitating conditions associated with successful implementation of EBPs in community mental health centers. The SHAY assesses the SMHA role in seven domains: Planning, Financing, Training, Leadership, Policies and Regulations, Quality Improvement, and Stakeholders. Preliminary evidence from the National Evidence-Based Practices Project partially supports the construct and criterion-oriented validity of this instrument for rating state-level activities supporting or blocking the implementation of evidence-based practices.