Dr. Beidas Advocates for Implementation Research and Mental Health Services in Congressional Briefing

Associate Director of CHIBE Dr. Rinad Beidas was invited by the Friends of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) coalition to participate in a congressional briefing to share information about mental health services and implementation research this July.

The title of her talk was: “Investing in implementation science to maximize the impact of scientific discovery: Lessons learned and the way forward.” Dr. Beidas spoke about what implementation science is and why it is important, gave some examples from her team’s NIMH-funded work, and discussed future opportunities.

Implementation science offers a set of tools—such as frameworks, methods, and outcomes—that must be applied to accelerate the impact of research and research investments, she explained. Dr. Beidas believes investing in implementation science is so important because it has the potential to improve the lives of Americans. In her talk, Dr. Beidas also noted the importance of using behavioral economics to make it easier to incorporate evidence-based practices into clinicians’ work.

Dr. Beidas was joined in this panel by Dr. Josh Gordon, Director of NIMH, and Dr. Greg Simon, Director of the NIMH-funded Mental Health Research Network.

The Friends of NIMH coalition is dedicated to supporting the mission of the NIMH to “transform the understanding of mental health and the treatment of mental illnesses through basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research, to best inform prevention, early intervention, recovery, and cures.” Some of the coalition’s activities include: educating policymakers and other stakeholders about the science of mental health, increasing public awareness about NIMH research activities and the impact it has on the lives of all individuals and communities, collaborating with the broad NIH community to inform whole health, and more.

Watch a video of the Congressional briefing, and find Dr. Beidas’s presentation here.

In addition to being a CHIBE Associate Director, Dr. Beidas is Director of the Penn Implementation Science Center at the Leonard Davis Institute (PISCE@LDI), Co-Director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research iSPHERE Scientific Working Group, and Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Medicine.