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Organizational readiness for implementation (ORI) is a critical barrier to successfully implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) that support the recovery of people with severe mental illnesses (SMI). Despite the importance of ORI, to date, no approach for enhancing readiness across an organization has been developed. The two studies conducted as part of this dissertation aimed to identify, organize, and confirm potential strategies to support ORI enhancement in community mental health (CMH) services. Study findings may inform the development of practices to increase ORI, and thus optimize implementation of evidence-based practices in the CMH services. The first study aimed to develop a typology of pre-implementation strategies focused on ORI enhancement. A panel of implementation experts participated in a modified Delphi process to classify pre-implementation strategies into stages of organizational readiness. The experts selected strategies from a well-accepted compilation of 73 implementation strategies, developed as part of the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) project. The Transtheoretical Model of behavioral change guided the experts in choosing strategies relevant during pre-implementation and classifying them into three readiness stages: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, and Preparation. The experts identified 48 of the ERIC strategies as relevant to pre-implementation readiness enhancement and agreed on their classification into the three ORI stages. Several strategies were identified as relevant to more than one stage. The purpose of the second study was to confirm and expand the expert-based typology based on empirical data relevant to the implementation of mental health evidence-based practices. The study employed qualitative methods to learn about the experiences of various CMH stakeholders who participated in a recent implementation project. Participants’ feedback about the use of different ORI strategies was compared with the expert-based typology to identify consistencies and discrepancies. Two-thirds of the strategies and their ORI stage designation suggested by the experts were congruent with the second study participants' experiences. Participants also assigned several strategies to different stages than those indicated by the experts and mentioned additional strategies not included in the expert-based typology. The second study highlighted the applicability of the expert-based typology to the CMH field and offered suggestions for potential expansions. Together, these two studies provide an essential step towards conceptualizing and operationalizing the construct of ORI and the strategies for enhancing it in the CMH context. The high congruence between experts and implementers suggests the applicability of the Transtheoretical model for organizing the strategies associated with each stage. This dissertation provides a promising foundation for the future development of a systematic approach to ORI enhancement at various levels of readiness for a practice change. Direct targeting of ORI enhancement could increase the uptake of EBPs and ensure that more people with SMI benefit from state-of-the-art interventions supporting their recovery. / 2023-05-14T00:00:00Z

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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

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The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change was used to assess change in investing behavior among Investing For Your Future home-study course participants. The goal of Investing For Your Future is to help people improve their personal finance behaviors leading to financial security in later life. On average, after course participation fourteen of the fifteen investing behaviors were identified in the desired stages of established behavior. The study was based on Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model of Change (1979), including five different stages of behavior. This study investigated at what stage of change course participants are in for certain investing behaviors since completing Investing For Your Future (O'Neill et al., 2000). The stages of behavior are: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. The desired stage was either the action or maintenance stage, which indicated that the investing behavior has been established. A person in the precontemplation stage is not thinking of future needs, not taking any actions to prepare for investing. Someone in the contemplation stage has set investing goals, but is not otherwise preparing to do the investing behavior. Someone in the preparation stage has both set goals and actively sought after information about the investing behavior. An individual in the action stage has not only done the preparatory actions, but has also engaged in the investing behavior. Finally, an individual in the maintenance stage has met the investing behavior action over an ongoing period of time. The quantitative survey design of this study was adapted from Dillman's Mail and Internet Surveys (2002). A survey questionnaire was created online using multiple choice and open-ended questions and was sent to the sample as a link in an email. The population consisted of Investing For Your Future (O'Neill et al., 2000) online course participants from April 1, 2001 through April 11, 2005. The initial sample consisted of 1,123, however at least 415 members of the sample never received the survey, reducing the sample to 708 people. Upon sending out the email, many error reports were received stating that the recipient did not receive the email. Response rates for the survey were very low, and can be attributed to multiple problems. / Master of Science