Evidence-based practices

DHS is committed to ensuring that children and youth receive excellent mental health care. This includes promoting evidence-based practices (EBP) to improve the quality and quantity of clinical treatment available to families and mental health providers.

Evidence-based practices are approaches to treatment that consider research to inform choices for effective courses of treatment. The research provides valuable information that can benefit children and youth with a wide range of mental health challenges. A family and provider can combine their experiences and expertise with evidence to decide what would work best for a child with concern for the child’s characteristics, circumstances and culture.

Building on work begun in Hawaii with support from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Minnesota developed an innovative model to implement evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes and transform the system of care. Efforts in Hawaii not only showed a significant decrease in the costs for serving a constant population of youth with serious emotional disturbance, but, much more important, the percentage of youth who showed significant clinical and functional improvement increased dramatically.

Minnesota’s model includes an evidence-based practices database, education for parents/families, and training and clinical consultation to mental health providers. These have established the foundation for more successful treatment strategies based on scientific research rather than upon consensus in the field about “what works.” By offering options, evidence-based practices open everyone’s eyes to other possibilities.

Minnesota’s evidence-based practices database

DHS has developed an evidence-based practices database to guide decisions by parents and providers in planning for child and adolescent care. This tool is the first of its kind to be used in practice to address the question of what works for whom under what conditions.

The Minnesota database incorporates data collected from rigorous review of scientific literature that suggest different techniques or strategies for treating children with various mental health disorders. It includes current evidence on treatment for seven mental health disorders: Anxiety, Attention Problems, Depression, Disruptive Behavior, Eating Disorders, Substance Use, and Trauma.

In practical terms, the new system provides a “map” of the treatment strategies that are most likely to be successful based upon a child’s disorder and demographic characteristics. Information about risks and side effects documented in the research are clearly presented as well. Only individuals trained in Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP) can access the EBP database.
Parents/families education
A major goal of evidence-based practices training for families is to help them better understand their potential in improving treatment outcomes for their children. DHS collaborated with NAMI Minnesota to develop educational materials for parents about evidence-based practices. These materials include fact sheets on each problem or diagnosis. Minnesota also created a curriculum, “What Works? What Helps? Treatment Options in Children’s Mental Health,” to train parents and family members about the use of evidence-based practices in providing more effective treatment plans for children’s mental health disorders.

EBP Fact Sheets: