State Psychiatric Clinicians - Non-Pharmacological EBP Adaptation

At the Association Driving Excellence in Psychiatric Treatment (ADEPT) we are currently seeking subject matter experts to discuss non-pharmacological evidenced based practices (EBPs) in inpatient state psychiatric facilities. Would you be willing to participate in a 10–15-minute conversation to share your expertise and insights? It occurs to us that while we all promote the value that treatment should be evidenced based, this may actually not be an easy task to accomplish. State inpatient psychiatric facilities mostly serve involuntary patient commitments which can translate to low levels of patient engagement in treatment. Furthermore, the need to provide group treatment to patients with broad variations in levels of acuity, different commitment types, and significantly different lengths of hospital stay, can present challenges to meet patient needs within an evidenced based framework. Most evidenced based practices for psychiatric rehabilitation are not written with these factors in mind. While researchers are starting to adapt longstanding EBPs specifically to address the inpatient state hospital setting, there still remains little published research and outcome data in this area. Meanwhile, clinicians are tasked with adapting on the fly to meet patient needs in extremely challenging environments of care. Given the lack of standardization in how this is done, at what point does an evidenced based practice become no longer valid? Do you have success stories in how you are managing these challenges, or further insights into how we can improve our ability to provide EBPs that are both meaningful to patients and provide positive treatment outcomes? Please contact me to participate in our next ADEPT conversations on this topic.