At the Duke Center for Global Mental Health (CGMH), research and practice are deeply interconnected. Many of our projects extend beyond the study of mental health to actively implement and evaluate interventions in real-world settings, ensuring that our work drives meaningful change. By integrating rigorous research with hands-on practice, the CGMH advances evidence-based solutions, strengthens mental health systems, and improves care for communities around the globe.
Generating Networks of Practitioners
Many faculty affiliates of the CGMH are also practitioners—including psychologists, psychiatrists, nursing professionals, and emergency medicine physicians—bringing firsthand clinical expertise to our research and practice efforts. Together, this interdisciplinary teams helps to generate diverse networks of practitioners and research, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing through initiatives such as topical working groups, which have been launched at the intersections of climate and mental health and spirituality and mental health. Developing innovative solutions to complex, often understudied global mental health challenges requires diverse perspectives and expertise across different areas of practice, ensuring that interventions are theory-informed and need-driven. Through this faculty and practitioner network, the CGMH seeks to strengthen connections between research and practice, supporting the development and implementation of real-world mental health solutions.
Research to Practice Pipeline
- Identify a problem/need: Recognize a mental health challenge or gap in services based on community priorities, clinical experience, or population-level data.
- Develop a research question: Formulate clear, focused questions that address the identified need and guide systematic research. To develop an appropriate research question, use tools such as the PICOT framework.
- Conduct background research: Review existing literature and evidence to understand what is already known and where gaps remain. Conduct prevalence and landscape surveys when relevant and engage in qualitative research to understand the problem/need in context.
- Theory development: Apply or refine theoretical frameworks to explain underlying mechanisms and inform intervention strategies. These can be developed in partnership with community members to adapt measures and theories to individual contexts.
- Program and research design: Design interventions and studies that are methodologically sound, contextually appropriate, and feasible in real-world settings. Oftentimes in program implementation, research begins in the form of a pilot study before developing into a randomized control trial (RCT).
- Secure funding and approvals: Obtain financial support, ethical approvals, and stakeholder buy-in to conduct the work responsibly.
- Data collection and analysis: Gather and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to assess effectiveness, feasibility, and impact.
- Interpretation and dissemination: Translate findings into actionable insights and share results with academic, clinical, community, and policy audiences.
- Adaptation, practice, and implementation: Modify and implement evidence-based approaches in practice settings, monitoring outcomes and sustainability over time. If the program is proven effective, scale-up the program, adapting it to different settings and integrating it into a health system.