Strengthening Partnerships Between Substance Use Researchers and Policy Makers

By Sarah Gutkind, MSPH March 7, 2019
Researchers convened at the 2019 CHERISH Stakeholder Conference to discuss how to expand adoption of evidence-based methods to treat substance use disorder. Photo by Hoag Levins.

“[For my organization] evidence will be used as a blunt instrument: should I go left or should I go right?"

- Interviewed Policy Maker

“They [legislature] do care about the cost offsets. They care about the cost benefits. They care about the return on investment in particular because they’re…at the state level [asking] ‘what return do we get for this?’ Particularly in substance abuse."

- Interviewed Policy Maker

"Researchers need to use the vocabulary of policy folk and not as if they’re talking to each other. Very few people understand the term Q-A-L-Y."

- Interviewed Policy Maker