Oxford Clinical Psychology is an evidence-based treatment that’s researched academically or scientifically, proven its effectiveness, and is replicated in various studies or investigations. It uses medically examined evidence combined with clinical experience and patient values. Evidence-based treatment has been verified by a multitude of studies on the topic, and it’s designed to be more productive for mental health or substance use disorders based on research.
There are six steps a provider must ask to implement evidence-based treatment, according to Duke University, which includes:
- Assessing the potential client and discovering their medical needs – it’s vital that you ask the right questions.
- You must do research and look over all the studies or investigations.
- It’s crucial to ensure the applicability, validities, and quality of the knowledge to the client’s specific case. Each case presents unique information.
- You must discuss the results of research with a client to determine their values, needs, and particular goals.
- Apply the knowledge you’ve obtained by developing a plan of action with the client.
- Lastly, after coming to an agreement with the client, you must implement the plan.
How Many Evidence-Based Practices Exist?
Evidence-based treatment has become the gold standard in mental health and substance abuse treatment. Despite your knowledge of the term, it’s important to know that various evidence-based practices exist. The most common of these interventions that are proven the most effective include:
- Exposure therapy: Commonly used to treat mental health issues, such as phobias, anxiety, and PTSD.
- Functional family therapy: An effective means of treating adolescents who are dealing with substance abuse.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): One of the most common treatment practices, known as Cognitive behavioral therapy, is used to treat individuals struggling with substance abuse and mental health problems. The treatment is geared toward changing their thinking and how they approach these problems.
- Assertive community treatment: Specialized treatment designed to assist those with severe mental health disorders.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A common treatment used to help those struggling with mental health and substance use disorders. DBT has proven itself to be an extremely beneficial option.
- Motivational Interviewing: It has been proven effective, in some cases, for those looking to overcome substance abuse.
Mental Health Vs. Substance Use Disorder | Where Do I Fall?
Addiction treatment is a complex journey involving diving deep into a client’s background. It’s often difficult to determine which therapy will be assigned to you once you enter a program because it must be tailored to your most pressing needs. Do you need treatment for your mental health? Substance abuse? Does your mental health push you to self-medicate? What drugs do you self-medicate with? There are various angles clinicians must work with, but if you read above, you’ll have an idea of what you can expect given your set of circumstances.
Benefits of Evidence-Based Practices
Evidence-based practices provide clients with a much higher level of success since they’re proven to work. Wide-scale studies involving thousands of individuals and risk factors have already been assessed, and many of these practices contain thoroughly written instructions practitioners must follow. It makes it easier for a doctor to implement these treatments. EBP has also been shown to be less costly than traditional therapy, and it’s more likely to be accepted by insurance than holistic therapy.
