Nora Jacobson, PhD, Dale Butterill, MSW, MPA, and Paula N. Goering, RN, PhD. Health Systems Research and Consulting Unit, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell St., T-320A (HSRCU), Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, Canada, (416) 535-8501 ext. 4229, nora_jacobson@camh.net

As governments and health care organizations seek to develop and implement “evidence-based” policy and practice, academic researchers increasingly are being asked to provide knowledge to these stakeholder groups in forms that are relevant and immediately useful. This paper will explore how research-based consulting—broadly defined as consulting work in which the contracted products are policy or practice recommendations grounded in applied research--can be used as a tool for such knowledge transfer. Using three case studies of consulting projects undertaken by the Health Systems Research and Consulting Unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, it will lay out a descriptive model of research-based consulting and examine the conditions that promote or hinder effective knowledge transfer in the consulting process.

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