MAPS is a small, member-supported and member-directed, collaborative project to design and empirically evaluate strategies for reforming administrative, regulatory, purchasing and/or organizational practices that are impeding quality improvement within systems of care. The eight (8) original state partners include: Connecticut; Delaware; Vermont; North Carolina; Maryland; Florida; Maine; and Massachusetts. Additional states have expressed interest and are being added on a regular basis. MAPS is supported by the partnering states through a membership fee, with TRI playing host to the group and providing technical expertise, as well as evaluation and analytical support.

     It was apparent from the outset of MAPS that States wanted at least four things from TRI:

• a safe environment within which to be able to discuss strategic issues;
• The most recent information and scientific findings about specific
  organization/financing/purchasing issues.
• assistance with planning, implementation, and evaluation of policy initiatives, including
  legislative briefings; and,
• validation/justification (formative evaluation) for their approaches.

The basic MAPS membership consists of three components. In the first component, MAPS members participate in two, one-day policy forums per year convened by TRI on specific issues of mutual interest. The forums join the State participants in MAPS with TRI staff, along with other relevant experts, to foster discussion of a specific issue and to develop consensus strategies for moving the issue forward. Policy papers and other relevant materials are used as a springboard for discussion at the forums. In addition to the policy forums, MAPS members are invited to participate in an invitation-only conference convened by TRI and the Wharton School that applies knowledge gained from other industries to issues that are emerging in the treatment industry.

In the second component of MAPS, members select specific policy, performance, business, organization, and/or financing projects that they would like to pilot test in a small subset of their treatment systems. TRI provides three days of consultation to each State, providing assistance in deciding how to purse that policy project, describing promising approaches tried by other states or suggested by the research literature, and helping the State design a practical improvement and evaluation protocol. 

The third component of MAPS consists of legislative briefings. Each member of MAPS, on
request, receives one legislative briefing during the year on a subject related to the policy project being implemented in the state.

     TRI's preferences for the small group, mutual assistance model is explained by several factors: 

• Practices, policies and procedures have a higher likelihood of success when derived from
  common experience rather than purely from academic research.
• Findings from a consortium of states may have greater political traction than the same
  findings from a single state effort. Such a consortium may provide the critical mass to conduct
  pilot studies, rapidly and affordably, in a relatively small number of treatment programs in each
  state.
• Small group forums are ideal environments for members to work on multiple issues
  simultaneously.
• Findings from the consortium can add significantly to the evidence base and be shared on a
  national basis through publication in a variety of reports and journal papers.

For more information about MAPS or related projects, contact Olivia Stroia at ostroia@tresearch.org. To learn more about joining MAPS, contact Mady Chalk, Ph.D. at mchalk@tresearch.org