San Francisco Practice Improvement Collaborative

MISSION

The San Francisco Practice Improvement Collaborative (PIC) was initiated by the county health department in collaboration with university-based researchers and publicly funded substance abuse treatment providers. The ultimate goal of this PIC is to ensure the capability of community-based treatment organizations to adopt best practices in clinical care and service delivery. An underlying, if not the primary, theme of the San Francisco PIC is that all partners have a crucial role in defining and carrying out community-based knowledge adoption activities.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

• Representatives of state and county substance abuse and mental health agencies
• Education and criminal justice agencies
• Public sector service administrators
• Researchers and evaluators
• Representatives of local and other county substance abuse provider and consumer organizations
• Community treatment program administrators
• Clinical supervisors and frontline providers
• Consumers of treatment and prevention services
• Education, prevention, and community advocacy organizations

GOVERNANCE

The San Francisco PIC is organized into three units, each with its own specific guidelines: the general San Francisco PIC, the interest groups, and specific projects. In keeping with Department of Public Health policy, all PIC meetings are open to the public and there is opportunity for public comment at each occasion. Meetings of the membership are held on a monthly basis and are facilitated by three co-chairs who represent policy, research, and practice interests. Decisions are reached through consensus, with divergent opinions submitted to the membership for a vote when consensus cannot be reached. Four interest groups have been formed to date: women's interest group; youth interest group; reducing harm to families and communities interest group; and Proposition 36 interest group. Interest groups were formed to allow providers, researchers, and policymakers who are interested in developing and evaluating services for targeted populations to come together to discuss relevant issues.

STAKEHOLDER EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT

The San Francisco PIC sponsors an annual knowledge dissemination conference on a wide range of substance abuse topics, including practitioner-researcher collaboration and innovative engagement intervention and treatment approaches, including use of drug court and alternative sentencing programs and therapeutic relapse models. In addition, a series of skills development workshops for practitioners has focused on a variety of evidence-based practice issues, such as cultural competence, anger management, dual diagnosis, drug education/youth resilience, and client management. This PIC has formed peer networking interest groups for women, youth, criminal justice diversion to treatment, and reducing community harm.

PRACTICE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES

• Pharmacotherapy in substance abuse treatment
• Use of computer-based systems for standardized substance abuse assessment
• Relapse prevention
• Standardizing assessment strategies and infrastructures in substance abuse treatment

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

• Convene technical assistance workshops on use of standardized substance abuse assessment
• Identify treatment protocols and training manuals on pharmacotherapy and relapse prevention
• Convene training workshops/colloquia on pharmacotherapy and relapse prevention

EVALUATION ACTIVITIES

• Evaluate effectiveness of onsite training and technical assistance as methods of implementing a pharmacotherapy protocol in substance abuse treatment
• Evaluate implementation of two different methods of relapse prevention

CONTACT INFORMATION