It takes 17 years to turn just 14% of original research into services that are routinely provided in community service settings. This research-to-practice gap fuels treatment disparities and makes it difficult for autistic children and their families to access high quality care within their own communities. Traditionally, academic researchers have not been effective at partnering with communities to support the adoption and sustained use of evidence-based care in a manner that is feasible, acceptable, and useful to communities.
Our Research Goals
- Examine and address the structural and systemic barriers to accessing and delivering high quality autism and mental health care.
- Implement early intervention and mental health services in community settings that are naturally positioned to serve autistic children and families.
- Increase the cultural responsiveness of autism services and systems.
Our Core Values
Community Engagement
- We aim for our research to be co-produced with community partners to ensure that community needs and realities drive our work. This includes all stages of our work, from conceptualization to implementation to dissemination.
- As we work to promote equity in access to quality services for children on the autism spectrum and their families, we aim to engage partners with lived experience of autism and who have a diversity of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We actively seek community input and welcome feedback. We seek to close the gap between communities and researchers, collaborating together as equal partners.
Inclusivity
- Across all those who are involved in our work, whether that be our lab members, study participants, or community partners, we value the richness and strengths that a diversity of identities and experiences inherently provide. We strive to build a respectful, safe, and inclusive environment for all. We will encourage each other to offer different perspectives and seek diverse opinions.
- As we strive to promote equity in access to high quality, culturally responsive care, we are committed to including individuals from marginalized and underserved groups in all aspects of our research process.
- We acknowledge that our identities and experiences impact the work we do. We are committed to ongoing self-reflection to build awareness of our blind-spots and to enhance personal growth.
Taking a Systems Perspective
- We acknowledge that public health and educational systems help children and families access care and yet are also highly complex. For example, schools and early intervention systems are often the only place where children with autism access care. Yet, these important systems also are constrained by funding shortages, administrative burden, and provider/educator turnover.
- Our team is committed to understanding the complexity of systems and co-creating strategies that: 1) help providers and administrators deliver high-quality care within the confines of their existing systems; and/or 2) alter systems such that providers and administrators have greater capacity to deliver and sustain high-quality care.