46. Research Translation: Dr Jaelea Skehan on why proving something works is just the start

View the full show notes, including a summary of practical tips on the Amplifying Research website: https://www.amplifyingresearch.com/podcast/46-jaelea-skehan

You've done the research. You've run the trial. You've published the paper. So why isn't anything changing? Dr Jaelea Skehan has spent more than 25 years translating research into real-world programs in mental health and suicide prevention — and she's seen firsthand why so many evidence-based innovations never make it past the journal. In this episode, she makes a compelling case that proving something works is just the beginning, and shares hard-won lessons from programs spanning 18 months to 25 years on what it actually takes to get research into practice — and keep it there.

Jaelea is the Director of Everymind and was awarded an Order of Australia medal for her work in community mental health. A psychologist, researcher, and policy advisor, she leads a multidisciplinary team that does what she calls "priority-led research" — designing programs not for journals, but for the systems and people they need to serve. Her PhD focused on what actually works when trying to change practice in sectors outside of health, built on Everymind's decades of implementation experience.

What makes Jaelea's perspective distinctive is that she lives at the intersection of research, practice, and community — and she's unflinching about what she's seen from that vantage point. She argues that the system incentivises proving things work in controlled settings while neglecting the messy, relational work of getting them into practice. And she backs it up with detailed case studies from programs her team has built, implemented, evaluated, and adapted over decades.

"All of the work and all of the effort you put into designing a program and proving that it works or that it's got some good outcomes… It is not the end of the journey. If anything, it's a ticket to the starting line." — Dr Jaelea Skehan

This episode is essential listening for anyone who cares about whether research actually reaches the people it's meant to help — whether you're designing interventions, funding them, evaluating them, or trying to get them implemented. If you've ever felt frustrated by the gap between evidence and practice, Jaelea offers both a diagnosis and a way forward.

Our conversation covers:

Why the research-practice gap in mental health and suicide prevention is a matter of life and death — and what it's doing to public trust in research

The voltage drop: why interventions that work in controlled trials lose effectiveness in the real world

Why proving something works is "a ticket to the starting line, not the end of the journey"

Designing for the implementation environment, not just the innovation itself

The Mindframe program: 25 years of lessons on changing media reporting of suicide across an entire sector