Choosing the Right Treatment: What Families Need to Know About Evidence-Based Practices

This guide is designed to inform families about evidence-based practices (EBPs) in children’s mental health and to share information on an array of treatment and support options. Today, more and more people recognize the benefit of being well-educated consumers of healthcare and seek information about healthcare conditions and treatment options. This is certainly true for families raising children with mental health treatment needs and mental illnesses. Families recognize that knowledge is power and that informed parents are in the best position to advocate for the most effective treatment and supports for their child and family. Families want what works best for their child and family.

Over the past several years, the focus of mental health treatment and support for children and families has increasingly been on “evidence based practices.” Evidence-based practices are treatments that have been shown through clinical research to produce positive outcomes for children and their families. In short, the practices have been shown through research to be effective.