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Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase Three: Academic Partner Team

Evaluating Advancing Behavioral Health initiatives, collaborating with community coalitions to sustain successful strategies, and sharing learnings

Full Project Name:Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase Three: Academic Partner TeamPrimary Academic Partner:Michelle Broaddus, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral MedicineAward Amount:$438,653
Award Date
July2022
Project Duration:24 months

Project Description Narrative:


In phase three of the Advancing Behavioral Health initiative, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) academic partner team will create, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive plan to disseminate key findings and educate decision-makers, collaborate with the ten funded coalitions to ensure the sustainability of successful strategies, and finalize the global evaluation of the statewide initiative, building on their proven track record of academic research in the field of dissemination of evidence-based strategies.

After working with the ten funded community coalitions through a year of planning and five years of implementation, the academic partner team is well-positioned to achieve these aims. In partnership with coalition staff, they have drafted an implementation catalog that details the vital activities necessary for successful strategies across multiple entities and sectors, including schools, health care systems, tribal communities, workplaces, and rural and farming communities. Approaches include mental health care access, community-based mental health awareness, resource navigation, evidence-based suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and workforce support and development.

The team has identified various audiences for this information, including government, healthcare, schools, and community organizations.

However, the catalog represents only one piece of a larger communications and dissemination plan. In collaboration with an outside consultant and MCW's office of communications, the academic partners will capitalize on the expertise of the community coalitions to encourage the replication and expansion of impactful strategies to improve behavioral health.

Project Updates:


  • Collaborated with Michael Best Strategies on implementation catalog detailing what has been learning about improving mental and behavioral in Wisconsin communities throughout the Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative
  • Continued to support data analysis, troubleshoot new challenges, and support cross-coalition collaboration, communication, and learning
  • Continued to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to tell the story of the ABH Initiative
  • Presented at the 2023 Wisconsin Public Health Association Conference

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