By: Dr. Cheri Shapiro, Director

The South Carolina Center of Excellence in Evidence-Based Intervention was created in January of 2016 to support the Palmetto Coordinated System of Care. The Center’s main work is to help organizations and providers within South Carolina learn about and implement evidence-based interventions to support children, youth, and families with behavioral health concerns, including mental health and substance use challenges.

Far too many families are suffering with these types of concerns, and we hope to help improve access to the best services possible.  At this time, we consider evidence-based interventions to be those that have demonstrated – through rigorous, well-conducted research — improvements in youth and family functioning.

There has been substantial growth in evidence-based interventions over the last several decades and many agencies and organizations require their use.   Examples of such interventions include Multisystemic Therapy, Incredible Years, Parent Child Interaction Therapy, Triple P-Positive Parenting Program, to name just a few.  Fortunately, there are a number of easy to access lists or registers where information about these types of programs can be found.  One prime example is the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

However, we all know that selecting a program is only the first step in a long and complex process of putting a program into place.  Making sense of the many factors that influence actual program uptake and use is where implementation science comes in.

In future blogs, we’ll be exploring these issues and more in more depth.