Bridging science and practice in child welfare and children’s mental health service systems through a two-decade research center trajectory

Summary: Over the past two decades, research on social work practice has experienced substantial growth in the United States, indicated by both the establishment of the Society for Social Work Research in 1994 and increased funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Recently, this growth has carried an increasing emphasis on research to establish the evidence base for social work practice and an emphasis on understanding dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions or practice models in usual care settings within service systems that have historic and Corresponding author: John Landsverk, Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC), Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, 3020 Children’s Way, MC 5033 (Mailing), 3665 Kearny Villa Rd. Ste 200 (Physical), San Diego, CA