Who are implementation support practitioners?
Implementation support practitioners are professionals who support implementation and build implementation capacity in human service organizations and systems. They can be referred to as coaches, improvement advisors, technical assistance providers, facilitators, consultants, mentors, and implementation specialists.
What is implementation support?
Implementation support includes any activities and processes aimed at assisting leadership and staff of human and social services organizations and systems in implementing, improving, scaling and sustaining evidence-informed programs, practices and policies to improve outcomes for populations.
Implementation Support Practitioner Profile
A Practice Guide to Supporting Implementation
What principles and competencies guide the work of implementation support practitioners?
The Practice Guide to Supporting Implementation and Implementation Support Practitioner Profile identify competencies that implementation support practitioners need to support effective implementation and scaling efforts.
An international collaboration of implementation colleagues produced this practice guide (authored by Allison Metz, Katie Burke, Bianca Albers, Laura Louison & Leah Bartley) and profile (authored by Allison Metz, Laura Louison, Katie Burke, Bianca Albers & Caryn Ward) while at the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), University of North Carolina, the European Implementation Collaborative and the Centre for Effective Services (Ireland). The practice guide and profile are based on the implementation science literature and real-world experience of implementation support practitioners.
What are principle and core competencies?
Principles refer to foundational attitudes with which implementation support practitioners should approach their work, decision-making and interactions with communities, organizations, and stakeholders.
Core competencies refer to the necessary abilities of implementation support practitioners, including the specific knowledge, resources and skills they should bring to bear in their work to effectively support the sustained uptake of evidence-informed programs, practices and policies.
What is the evidence for implementation practice?
Learn more about the evidence for implementation support practitioners in the key publications below.
- Implementation support practitioners: a proposal for consolidating a diverse evidence base (2020)
- Implementation Practice in Human Service Systems: Understanding the Principles and Competencies of Professionals Who Support Implementation (2021)
- Implementation Support Skills: Findings From a Systematic Integrative Review (2020)
- The Mechanisms of Implementation Support - Findings from a Systematic Integrative Review (2021)
- Knowledge and attitudes of Implementation Support Practitioners - Findings from a systematic integrative review (2022)
Connection: The energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued.
- Brené Brown