Process of Selecting Interventions

All practitioners, regardless of child-serving sector or mental health discipline, must play an active role in transforming children's mental health so that it can become resiliency-focused, family-driven, and youth-guided. When practitioners promote and encourage a data and outcome-driven framework, they facilitate the adoption of evidence-based interventions. By advancing evidence-based care, one can continue to enhance and improve outcomes for children.

Choosing the "right" treatment can challenge even the most skilled clinician as no single approach to mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems will work with every client. A variety of standardized screening and assessment tools are available to assist practitioners in selecting the most appropriate treatment.

An essential component of screening, assessment, and treatment planning is ensuring cultural competence.

The Practitioner Section includes helpful tips and resources on partnering with youth and families, assessing their needs, and aligning EBPs with the needs of youth and families.

Helpful Links:

• To learn more about what it means to be an evidence-based practitioner and to know what questions to ask when selecting an evidence-based intervention, visit the Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behaviors
• The State of Hawaii has an excellent resource, entitled the Blue Menu, which helps practitioners select the most appropriate evidence-based treatment