The Promise of Evidence-Based Practices in Child and Adolescent Mental Health

The push for evidence-based practices has dominated the mental health and health care arenas for more than a decade. Conversations among professionals who provide mental health services for youth have included both support and opposition to this position. On the one hand, there is a plethora of discourse indicating widespread support for the need to provide the best available services for youth in need, delivered through the provision of evidence-based practices. On the other hand, there are also opponents to this viewpoint, primarily arguing that evidence-based practices developed in research settings may not fit the context of community providers. A gap already existed between research and practice, and the push for evidence-based practices has further widened the rift between divisions in the mental health field.