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State mental health authorities have a leadership role in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs), but few instruments are available to assess the impact of this role. We describe the development of the State Mental Health Authority Yardstick (SHAY), a behaviorally anchored instrument designed to assess state-level facilitating conditions associated with successful implementation of EBPs in community mental health centers. The SHAY assesses the SMHA role in seven domains: Planning, Financing, Training, Leadership, Policies and Regulations, Quality Improvement, and Stakeholders. Preliminary evidence from the National Evidence-Based Practices Project partially supports the construct and criterion-oriented validity of this instrument for rating state-level activities supporting or blocking the implementation of evidence-based practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence-based practice demonstration for services to adults with serious mental illness has ended its pilot stage. This paper presents the approaches states employed to combine traditional policy levers with more strategic/institutional efforts (e.g., leadership) to facilitate implementation of these practices. Two rounds of site visits were completed and extensive interview data collected. The data were analyzed to find trends that were consistent across states and across practices. Two themes emerged for understanding implementation of evidence-based practices: the support and influence of the state mental health authority matters and so does the structure of the mental health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]