TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2024//
TI  - Partnership building for scale-up in the Veteran Sponsorship Initiative: strategies for harnessing collaboration to accelerate impact in suicide prevention
JO  - Health services research
A1  - Finley, Erin P.
A1  - Frankfurt, Sheila B.
A1  - Kamdar, Nipa
A1  - Goodrich, David E.
A1  - Ganss, Elyse
A1  - Chen, Chien J.
A1  - Eickhoff, Christine
A1  - Krauss, Alison
A1  - Connelly, Brigid
A1  - Seim, Richard W.
A1  - Goodman, Marianne
A1  - Geraci, Joseph
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the implementation and trust-building strategies associated with successful partnership formation in scale-up of the Veteran Sponsorship Initiative (VSI), an evidence-based suicide prevention intervention enhancing connection to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other resources during the military-to-civilian transition period. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: Scaling VSI nationally required establishing partnerships across VA, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and diverse public and private Veteran-serving organizations. We assessed partnerships formalized with a signed memorandum during pre- and early implementation periods (October 2020-October 2022). To capture implementation activities, we conducted 39 periodic reflections with implementation team members over the same period. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a qualitative case study evaluating the number of formalized VSI partnerships alongside directed qualitative content analysis of periodic reflections data using Atlas.ti 22.0. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: We first independently coded reflections for implementation strategies, following the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) taxonomy, and for trust-building strategies, following the Theoretical Model for Trusting Relationships and Implementation; a second round of inductive coding explored emergent themes associated with partnership formation. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: During this period, VSI established 12 active partnerships with public and non-profit agencies. The VSI team reported using 35 ERIC implementation strategies, including building a coalition and developing educational and procedural documents, and trust-building strategies including demonstrating competence and credibility, frequent interactions, and responsiveness. Cultural competence in navigating DoD and VA and accepting and persisting through conflict also appeared to support scale-up. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: VSI's partnership-formation efforts leveraged a variety of implementation strategies, particularly around strengthening stakeholder interrelationships and refining procedures for coordination and communication. VSI implementation activities were further characterized by an intentional focus on trust-building over time. VSI's rapid scale-up highlights the value of partnership formation for achieving coordinated interventions to address complex problems.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0017-9124
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.14309
ID  - ref1
ER  -