Policies On Evidence-Based Practice

Health services such as medicine often have policies on evidence-based practice (EBP; Torrey et al., 2001) therefore The American Psychological Association (APA) in 2005 released their own policy statement on EBP (APA Presidential Task Force on Evidence-based Practice, 2006), highlighting its importance in psychology. The core elements of EBP are the combining of the best available evidence with clinical expertise while considering patient values, such as individual differences, preferences and culture, in order to offer effective psychological treatment. Nonetheless, adopting these three values in an applied setting is not without difficulty, thus, these challenges will be explained. The first element of EBP in psychology is the use of best evidence in clinical decisions, which can also be
Despite this, relatively recent advances in the way research is collected and analyzed on behalf of clinicians mitigates this challenge. For example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) serves the National Health Service by providing guidance on the appropriate treatment of specific mental health and behavioral conditions. Through systematic reviews of vetted randomized controlled trials, guidance is established based on efficacy and cost-effectiveness, thus easing access and time restraints for psychological clinicians. However, NICE has been criticized by some as taking an incompatible approach to mental health which raises some concerns. NICE utilizes a biomedical approach when producing guidelines for mental health problems, however, in many cases this approach is not appropriate since, as Mollon (2010) discusses, it undermines the individuality of mental distress and the benefit interpersonal exploration with a psychotherapist can have. This can become further problematic when the patient considers themselves to have a ‘disease’ when experiencing mental distress, as NICE’s model would seem to suggest, ignoring the role of stressful life