Research article
A social marketing approach to implementing evidence-based practice in VHA QUERI: the TIDES depression collaborative care model
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* Corresponding author: Jeff Luck jluck@ucla.edu
1 VA Greater Los Angeles HSR&D Center of Excellence, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA, USA
2 Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA
3 Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
4 Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research, North Little Rock, AR, USA
5 South Central Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Little Rock, AR, USA
6 University of Arkansas Medical Sciences (UAMS) Center, Little Rock, AR, USA
Implementation Science 2009, 4:64 doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-64
Published: 28 September 2009Abstract
Collaborative care models for depression in primary care are effective and cost-effective, but difficult to spread to new sites. Translating Initiatives for Depression into Effective Solutions (TIDES) is an initiative to promote evidence-based collaborative care in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Social marketing applies marketing techniques to promote positive behavior change. Described in this paper, TIDES used a social marketing approach to foster national spread of collaborative care models.
The approach relied on a sequential model of behavior change and explicit attention to audience segmentation. Segments included VHA national leadership, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) regional leadership, facility managers, frontline providers, and veterans. TIDES communications, materials and messages targeted each segment, guided by an overall marketing plan.
Depression collaborative care based on the TIDES model was adopted by VHA as part of the new Primary Care Mental Health Initiative and associated policies. It is currently in use in more than 50 primary care practices across the United States, and continues to spread, suggesting success for its social marketing-based dissemination strategy.
Development, execution and evaluation of the TIDES marketing effort shows that social marketing is a promising approach for promoting implementation of evidence-based interventions in integrated healthcare systems.