Education and Training Column: The Learning Collaborative

Topic: This column describes the key components of a learning collaborative, with examples from the experience of 1 organization. Purpose: A learning collaborative is a method for management, learning, and improvement of products or processes, and is a useful approach to implementation of a new service design or approach. Sources Used: This description draws from published material on learning collaboratives and the authors' experiences. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The learning collaborative approach offers an effective method to improve service provider skills, provide support, and structure environments to result in lasting change for people using behavioral health services. This approach is consistent with psychiatric rehabilitation principles and practices, and serves to increase the overall capacity of the mental health system by structuring a process for discovering and sharing knowledge and expertise across provider agencies.