CoLab reimagines how evidence can be integrated with community expertise to advance behavioral health policy.
We are housed under the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
We are housed under the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
We partner with a wide variety of collaborators and funders to support CoLab and its individual projects. CoLab project collaborators include philanthropy, policymakers, community-based organizations and coalitions, government agencies and administrators, service providers, and healthcare payers. Our funding partners include national and local foundations as well as federal, state, and county level funding mechanisms.
Codesign combines research synthesis with the industry or community expertise of actors in a particular policy or practice market. It takes a partnership approach, wherein end users are actively involved in the design process to help ensure that the outcome meets their needs and expectations. This approach supports the development and implementation of behavioral health programs and systems.
CoLab provides evidence translation and synthesis services to a variety of community and organizational stakeholders. These services range in scope and depth depending on each project’s needs.
CoLab researchers use industry expertise, evidence synthesis, and project-specific data analysis to support collaborators in programmatic and systems level decision-making.
See below for a selection of our current projects. Click through to view each individual project page for more information.
EBPI is a partnership between the CoLab and the WA State Healthcare Authority (HCA) that focuses on: (1) Training and technical assistance to providers on use of EBPs; (2) Research on use of EBPs; (3) Policy to improve use of EBPs; (4) Development of a University workforce initiative to support training.
This pilot study being done in Wenatchee and Yakima aims to assess streamlining monitoring and support options for improving client outcomes in children’s mental and behavioral health systems.
The CoLab and WA Healthcare Authority (HCA) are piloting a new “System Codesign” approach to address youth behavioral health needs in Gray’s Harbor, WA.
The CoLab frequently partners with policymakers, organizations and agencies to conduct RERs, which take a relatively short time to complete, can encompass a wide range of research topics, and have transparent and structured processes.
H-SYNC is a prevention tool for youth homelessness developed by the CoLab team in collaboration with workgroups in Snohomish and Kitsap Counties. The model uses routine practices already embedded in court systems to automatically identify and refer youth and families to needed prevention/intervention services.
To help bridge the research-to-practice gap, ARC will assess the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of a new Conceptual Research Use (CRU) tool in a large sample of juvenile court staff in Washington, Utah, and Los Angeles, California.
The CoLab is partnering with Pierce Co. to facilitate the implementation and preliminary analysis of the OBP program, wherein youth create meaningful goals and incentives that reward prosocial behavior
The CoLab is partnering with the WA Partnership Council on Juvenile Justice (WA-PCJJ) and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to assess how to invest in better development, distribution, and use of disparity data in juvenile arrest/referral.
—World Health Organization (WHO)
The CoLab team is a group of dedicated experts in behavioral health research translation, synthesis, and codesign. Click through to learn more.
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