What is an Evidence-Based Culture?

States and communities that use evidence-based practices emphasize the need for an infrastructure that supports their implementation efforts. An Implementation Model from New York's mental health system illustrates how system, policy, and organizational factors can influence the process and outcomes of mental health care (Hoagwood, 2006).

New York State's Implementation Model

We use the term evidence-based culture (Dixon , 2003) to refer to the features of organizations and systems which support the use of evidence-based and promising practices, to promote continuous quality improvement. A system or agency with an evidence-based culture would have characteristics such as:

  • Open, constructive communication to resolve problems and make new discoveries among families, practitioners/supervisors, administrators, and researchers
  • A "change management" approach (i.e., an organization that is open to change and innovation, and willing to adapt policies and procedures to accommodate change that will improve programs and outcomes)
  • Leadership that facilitates transformation to an evidence-based culture
  • Shared values and understanding about how the use of evidence leads to service planning and development, service delivery, outcomes, and continuous quality improvement
  • Skills and tools for using evidence to identify the needs of children, families, and communities
  • Systematic approaches for reviewing available evidence from research and evaluation to decide which treatments and services address the identified needs
  • Collaborative processes to select promising and evidence-based practices that address specific needs and fit the ethnic, racial, and geographic cultures of local communities
  • Structure and financing to provide practitioners with necessary training, coaching, and technical assistance to learn service and treatment delivery methods
  • Funding and reimbursement structures that support promising and evidence-based practices and ongoing evaluation supports
  • Funding and reimbursement structures that support training for family and youth involvement in all phases of selection, implementation, and evaluation of interventions
  • Structure and methods that measure how well new treatments and services are being implemented, and which assess whether new services are having the expected impact on children and families.

This Resource Guide provides information about how these characteristics or features can be built into service systems so that evidence-based and promising practices will be adopted and sustained.

References

Dixon , G.D. (2003). Evidence-Based practices. Part III. Moving science into service: Steps to implementing evidence-based practices. Tallahassee , FL: Southern Coast Beacon (a publication of the Southern Coast Addictions Technology Transfer Center). [Available online at http://www.scattc.org/pdf_upload/Beacon003.pdf]

Hoagwood, K.E. (2006, August). Issues in implementing EBPs for children in New York State: Reverse engineering. Paper presented at the meeting of the NASMHPD Research Institute on Lessons Learned: Implementing EBPs in Statewide Transformation, Arlington , VA.