Closing the Research to Practice Gap in Therapeutic Residential Care

Residential care has been criticized for its high cost and limited research evidence. While recent studies and reviews of the literature suggest that a number of evidence-based practices are being implemented in residential care settings, more research is needed to develop and test empirically based practices that can be successfully implemented in residential care. In this article, we offer a promising strategy to address this issue: a long-term research partnership between a large service provider agency and a university-based research center to conduct a program of research which has resulted in translation of evidence-supported practices into service provider programs, contributions to the science of residential care, and training opportunities for young applied scientists to specialize in this important work. This evolving program of research includes four core applied research topic areas in which this collaboration has had some ongoing success: program and practice implementation fidelity, therapeutic process factors, aftercare, and psychotropic medication use. We suggest that this type of long-term collaborative research partnership is an approach for others to consider for conducting research that informs effective residential care practices.