Resources
Resources and Related Links
This section provides useful resources to assist you with the selection and implementation of evidence-based programs and practices addressing substance abuse and mental health. More than 100 resources and links related to planning, evaluating, implementing, and sustaining evidence-based programs. Topical literature reviews on relevant behavioral health topics are featured on this page. You will also find links to other evidence-based clearinghouses.
NREPP Original Literature Reviews
back to top
Behind the Terms: Discussions of Key Terms in Behavioral Health
This section provides users with the “stories” behind specific key terms in behavioral health that may have different meanings and signify different concepts, depending on the context. Within each Behind the Term discussion, you can find information on
- The origin or derivation of the term
- Its meaning as a social construct within the behavioral health field
- If and how it is used across social, psychological, medical, or other domains
- Its relationship to other similar terms or concepts
- Additional information and related programs or resources
For reviews of current terms, see below.
back to top
Needs Assessment
Needs Assessment and cultural Competence: Questions to ask
These questions will help to ensure that your assessment process is inclusive and culturally relevant.
Planning for Effective Program Evaluation
This module provides information on developing logic models and conducting a needs assessment.
Criteria for Analyzing Assessment Data
When setting prevention priorities, communities often find it helpful to analyze their assessment data according to five criteria.
BEST Training on Evidence Based Practice
Ultimately aimed at strengthening the linkage between research knowledge and practice, the specific components of this process involve posing specific and well-structured questions, searching effectively and efficiently for the best evidence, evaluating any evidence that you identify by research standards and your own agency and professional judgment, and finally taking action based on your assessment.
Tools for Implementing an Evidence-Based Approach in Public Health Practice
Easily accessible and time-efficient tools for implementing an evidence-based public health (EBPH) approach to improve population health.
Identifying Needs
A community needs assessment will help you gather information to use for program selection and planning.
Evidence-Based Practice Skills Assessment for Criminal Justice Organizations
The Evidence-based Practice Skills Assessment (EBPSA) is a self-report measurement tool designed to gauge the extent to which correctional staff demonstrate the skills necessary to successfully implement Evidence-based Practices (EBP). This guide will summarize how the EBPSA enhances an organization’s ability to become a more effective evidence-based organization.
back to top
Planning
The Hexagon Tool
Helps states, communities, and agencies evaluate new and existing interventions via needs, fit, resource availability, evidence, readiness for replication, and capacity to implement.
Willing, Able, Ready: Basics and Policy Implications of Readiness as a Key Component for Implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions
This brief is one in a series exploring issues related to the implementation of evidence-based interventions.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Assessment & Planning Models, Frameworks & Tools
Assessment and Planning Models, Frameworks and Tools
Applying the Strategic Prevention Framework
The SPF reflects a community-based approach to prevention efforts and helps states, tribes, and jurisdictions build the infrastructure necessary for successful outcomes.
Identifying and Selecting Evidence-Based Interventions
The purpose of this guidance is to assist State and community planners in applying the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to identify and select evidence-based interventions that address local needs and reduce substance abuse problems.
Scaling-up Brief: Exploration Stage
Exploration Stage processes are designed to assure mutually informed agreement to proceed with use of an innovation; both the Implementation Team and the organization understand what is to be done, how it will be done, and the resources and timelines for doing it.
Scaling-up Brief: Cascading Logic Model
The Cascading Logic Model helps states define and operationalize the infrastructure needed for effective statewide implementation of EBPs.
ImpleMap: Exploring the Implementation Landscape
When creating implementation capacity in an organization new to active implementation, the first task is to map the current implementation landscape. The ImpleMap interview process assists implementation specialists in collecting information to inform active implementation planning and development in the organization.
Stages of Implementation Analysis: Where Are We?
When creating Implementation Teams to provide supports that are effective, integrated, efficient, and sustainable, the first task is map the current implementation landscape. The goal is, build on current strengths and collect information to inform planning the best path toward developing implementation capacity in this provider organization.
LINKS Syntheses
A synthesis of information from experimentally evaluated programs in the LINKS (Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully) database provided in fact sheets on Program Population, Program Outcome, and Program Approach.
Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders
A framework for establishing evidence-based standards.
What Research Says About Readiness?
Creating readiness for change.
Organizational (Staff) Assessments
Measures aspects of organizational readiness for change.
Using Logic Models, a Key Building Block of Results-Focused Programs
The interview provides an overview of why a clear program description is important, what logic models are and how they’re used, how the CDC is using logic models to clarify grantee proposals, and advice to program leaders and public managers about using logic models.
back to top
Implementation
Using Evidence-Based Constructs to Assess Extent of Implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions
This brief is one in a series exploring issues related to the implementation of evidence-based interventions. It describes several constructs that can be used to describe, monitor, and facilitate implementation.
Getting To Outcomes 2007
Summary of the Getting To Outcomes 2004: Promoting Accountability Through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation manual, with step-by-step guidance to practitioners in need of a concise, overview-style approach to the GTO process.
The Importance of Contextual Fit When Implementing Evidence-Based Interventions
This brief is one in a series exploring issues related to the implementation of evidence-based interventions. It defines contextual fit, which is based on the premise that the match between an intervention and local context affects both the quality of the intervention implemented and whether the intervention actually produces the outcomes desired for the children and families receiving the intervention. An operational definition, formal measures, and systematic research that guides both policy and practice are needed before assessing the fit of evidence-based interventions for a particular context can become common practice. The brief describes eight elements that combine to establish the fit between an intervention and a setting. It also includes recommendations for developing formal measures of contextual fit. This brief is one of three developed as part of the Investing in What Works project, which builds the knowledge and supports that evidence-based programs can use to improve the quality and outcomes of interventions funded through federal investments.
What Are Core Components...and Why Do They Matter?
Knowing the core intervention components may allow for more efficient and cost-effective implementation and lead to decisions about what can be adapted to suit local conditions.
Getting To Outcomes®: Improving Community-Based Prevention
The GTO intervention helps practitioners permanently incorporate newly learned capacities into routine operations, closing the gap between research and practice.
Role of Informatics in Evidence-Based Practice
Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., Chair of the Council for Training in Evidence-Based Practice, describes the role of informatics in evidence-based behavioral practice.
What Are Key Competencies in Evidence-Based Behavioral Practice?
Edward Mullen, D.S.W., member of the Council for Training in Evidence-Based Behavioral Practice, describes the attitudes and skills necessary to achieve competence in evidence-based practice.
Implementation Science and Education
Discusses the importance of Implementation Science for education.
Implementation Science
A narrative review of selective literature on implementation science and policy implementation research, predominantly relying on secondary data in the form of overviews, reviews, and assessments of research conducted in the two fields.
Never the Twain Shall Meet? - A Comparison of Implementation Science and Policy Implementation Research
Based on a narrative review of selective literature on implementation science and policy implementation research, the aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of policy implementation research, analyze key similarities and differences between this field and implementation science, and discuss how knowledge assembled in policy implementation research could inform implementation science.
Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature
Describes the current state of the science of implementation and identifies what it will take to transmit innovative programs and practices to mental health, social services, juvenile justice, education, early childhood education, employment services, and substance abuse prevention and treatment.
An Introduction to Effectiveness, Dissemination and Implementation Research
This guide is an introduction to the emerging fields of effectiveness research, diffusion research, dissemination research, and implementation sciences.
Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy
This report investigates why scientific evidence is important to policy making and argues that an extensive body of research on knowledge utilization has not led to any widely accepted explanation of what it means to use science in public policy.
Video Vignette 1: ImpleMap Segment 1
This segment demonstrates the inquiry process related to the "what"--which interventions, programs, frameworks, or practices they are purposefully attempting to implement well, and on what basis they selected them.
Video Vignette 1: ImpleMap Segment 1
This segment demonstrates the inquiry process related to the "what"--which interventions, programs, frameworks, or practices they are purposefully attempting to implement well, and on what basis they selected them.
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) KIT
Provides tools to implement the evidence-based practices of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), which offers customized, community-based services for people with mental illness.
back to top
Evaluation
How to Design Performance Measures to Better Measure Impact
Public leaders can design performance measures to better reflect impact, including through the use of regression-adjusted performance measures.
Understanding Evidence
Explains the purpose and meaning of the Continuum of Evidence of Effectiveness, a tool that was developed to facilitate a common understanding of what the Best Available Research Evidence means in the field of violence prevention. This Continuum also provides common language for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in discussing evidence-based decision making.
Performance Management and Program Evaluation
This video overview is designed to help public leaders and program managers to better understand performance management and program evaluation — their differences and their synergies — so they can more closely integrate these efforts.
Strengthening Evaluation Capacity Within Agencies
The Director of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services speaks about improving the effectiveness and efficiency of ACF programs.
Evaluation Tools and Resources
These tools, aides, tip sheets, and other resources are available to support with planning and management, implementation, and analysis of data and evaluations.
Logic Model Development Guide
Designed to assist organizations in creating programmatic logic models.
Developing a Logic Model to Guide Program Evaluation
Shows how logic models can be used to inform program planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Evaluation Steps
Six connected steps together can be used as a starting point to tailor an evaluation for a particular public health effort, at a particular point in time. An order exists for fulfilling each step – in general, the earlier steps provide the foundation for subsequent progress.
Lessons from Evaluators’ Experiences with Scale
The Harvard Family Research Project spoke with three evaluators to discover how evaluation can inform and assess scaling efforts. They shared lessons from their experiences in evaluating programs as they went to scale.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook
This handbook provides a framework for thinking about evaluation as a relevant and useful program tool. It was written primarily for project directors who have direct responsibility for the ongoing evaluation of W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded projects.
A Checklist for Building Organizational Evaluation Capacity
The purpose of this checklist is to provide a set of guidelines for organizational evaluation capacity building (ECB), i.e., for incorporating evaluation routinely into the life of an organization.
Criteria for Selection of High-Performing Indicators
The checklist includes practice-based criteria to be considered in the selection of indicators for use in monitoring and evaluation.
task.
Evaluating the Initiative
This toolkit aids in developing an evaluation of a community program or initiative.
Some Methods for Evaluating Comprehensive Community Initiatives
Evaluation Questions and Designs
Change Tool
To complete the CHANGE tool, all eight action steps and resources are provided on this page.
Communicating Evaluation Results
This module will address the process for reviewing and interpreting the data and end with different strategies to communicate results to your stakeholders.
2013 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs—Preschool and Elementary School Edition
The CASEL Guide provides a systematic framework for evaluating the quality of social and emotional programs and applies this framework to identify and rate well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs with potential for broad dissemination to schools across the United States. The guide also shares best-practice guidelines for district and school teams on how to select and implement SEL programs. Finally, it offers recommendations for future priorities to advance SEL research and practice.
2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs—Middle and High School Edition
The CASEL Guide provides a systematic framework for evaluating the quality of social and emotional programs and applies this framework to identify and rate well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs with potential for broad dissemination to schools across the United States.
back to top
Sustainability
Building Prevention Capacity Through Collaboration
Learn how building prevention capacity through collaboration can improve behavioral health and increase program sustainability.
Scaling the Triple P System of Interventions in Mecklenburg County, NC
Lessons learned from scaling the Triple P system of interventions across Mecklenburg County, NC.
The State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence-Based Practices Center
Factors That Contribute to Capacity Building and Sustainability
back to top
Practice-based Evidence and Cultural Competence in Evaluation
Using Practice-Based Evidence to Complement Evidence-Based Practice in Children's Mental Health
Practice-based evidence holds promise for expanding the realm of interventions that have objective support based in community values. However the construct needs more rigorous definition and parameters.
A Compendium of Proven Community-Based Prevention Programs
Highlights 79 evidence-based disease and injury prevention programs that have saved lives and improved health.
Systematic Review Methods
The Community Guide conducts systematic reviews of interventions in many topic areas to learn what works to promote public health.
The Effectiveness of Universal School-Based Programs for the Prevention of Violent and Aggressive Behavior
The results of this review provide strong evidence that universal school-based programs decrease rates of violence and aggressive behavior among school-aged children.
Evidence-Based Practice and Practice-Based Evidence
Definitions
Understanding Cultural Conditions
Evaluators Paul Florin, Phillip Graham, and Roy Gabriel discuss the importance of understanding cultural context and conditions when designing and delivering technical assistance to support substance misuse prevention services.
Evidence Based Practices, Practice Evidence Based Practices, Practice Based Evidence and Community Based Evidence and Community Defined Evidence in Multicultural Defined Evidence in Multicultural Mental Health
Statistics, culture, practice definitions.
Community Defined Practices Webinar Series
The webinar series focuses on community-defined practices (CDPs) and promising practices in racial and ethnic communities (Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, African American, and Latino).
What is Community Defined Evidence?
Evidence-Based Practices, Practice-Based Evidence, Community-Defined Evidence Practices Currently Being Used by Systems of Care
Practices in use by type and state
Funding
Director’s Blog: Transparency
Director’s Blog: Funding Science
Director’s Blog: From Research to Practice
Guidance for Revision of the FY2014-2015 MHBG Behavioral Health Assessment and Plan
back to top
Courses & Training
A Road Map to Implementing Evidence-Based Programs
This course provides guidance to facilitate selection and implementation of one of the many evidence-based programs related to prevention and treatment that are publicly available today.
Preparing an Intervention for NREPP Submission and Potential Review
This decision support tool is designed to assist the public in identifying approaches that have been scientifically tested and that can be readily disseminated to the field.
Non-Researcher's Guide to Evidence-Based Program Evaluation
This course provides a basic overview of program evaluation, including the goals of evaluation, types of evaluation, and common study designs. It provides general guidance on how to successfully plan, conduct, and manage an evaluation. The course also covers how to address research quality and disseminate your findings so that the results of your evaluation will have maximum impact.
Online Training Modules
Online training modules on Evidence-based Behavioral Practice sponsored by the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The EBBP.org project creates training resources to help bridge the gap between behavioral health research and practice. Professionals from the major health disciplines are collaborating to learn, teach, and implement evidence-based behavioral practice (EBBP).
back to top
Links to Other Evidence-Based Repositories and Resources on Evidence-Based Programs
| Site |
Sponsoring Agency/Organization |
| U.S. Federal Government Resources |
Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality |
Center for the Application of Prevention Technology (CAPT) Database of Prevention Programs |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration |
CrimeSolutions.gov |
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs |
Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse |
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences |
Evidence-Based Behavioral-Practice |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Behavioral & Social Sciences Research |
EPC Evidence-Based Reports |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality |
Integrating Behavioral Health into Primary Care |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration |
Model Programs Guide |
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention |
National Institute of Mental Health Director’s Blog |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health |
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality |
The Community Guide |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Community Preventive Services Task Force |
The Guide to Community Preventive Services |
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines |
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs |
Youth.gov |
U.S. Federal Government, Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) |
Resources from Academic Sources |
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development “Blueprints Programs” |
University of Colorado Boulder, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence |
Center for Dissemination and Implementation |
Washington University, Institute for Public Health |
Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy |
George Mason University, Department of Criminology, Law and Society |
Children, Youth, and Families at Risk Program (CYFAR) |
University of Minnesota |
Community Toolbox |
University of Kansas, Work Group for Community Health and Development |
National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) |
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, |
State Implementation & Scaling-up of Evidence-based Practices Center |
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute |
The Evaluation Center |
Western Michigan University |
The Evaluation Exchange |
Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Family Research Project |
Resources from Private Sources |
Best Practices Registry, Suicide Prevention Resource Center |
Education Development Center (EDC) |
California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare |
California Department of Social Services |
California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions |
The California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions |
Campbell Collaboration |
Campbell Collaboration |
Child Trends’ What Works/LINKS Database |
Child Trends |
Cochrane Collaboration |
The Cochrane Collaboration |
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) |
The Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning |
Promising Practices Network on Children, Families and Communities |
Rand Corporation |
Top Tier Evidence |
Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy |
Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) |
Washington Legislature, The Evergreen College |