References to Evidence-based Program Registry (EBPR) Websites for Behavioral Health in U.S. State Government Statutes and Regulations

Abstract

U.S. state governments have the responsibility to regulate and license behavioral health care interventions, such as for addiction and mental illness, with increasing emphasis on implementing evidence-based programs (EBPs). A serious obstacle to this is lack of clarity or agreement about what constitutes “evidence-based.” The study’s purpose was to determine the extent to which and in what contexts web-based Evidence-based Program Registries (EBPRs) are referenced in state government statutes and regulations (“mandates”) concerning behavioral health care. Examples are What Works Clearinghouse, National Register of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The study employed the Westlaw Legal Research Database to search for 30 known EBPR websites relevant to behavioral health care within the statutes and regulations of all 50 states. There was low prevalence of EBPR references in state statutes and regulations pertaining to behavioral health care; 20 states had a total of 33 mandates that referenced an EBPR. These mandates usually do not rely on an EBPR as the sole acceptable source for classifying a program or practice as “evidence-based.” Instead, EBPRs were named in conjunction with internal state or external sources of information about putative program effectiveness, which may be less valid than EBPRs, to determine what is “evidence-based.” Greater awareness of scientifically based EBPRs and greater understanding of their advantages need to be fostered among state legislators and regulators charged with making policy to increase or improve the use of evidence-based programs and practices in behavioral health care in the United States.