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Connecticut DCF commits to evidence-based treatments for children’s mental health; study shows therapies are particularly promising for children of color

Hartford Courant - 4/29/2021

The state Department of Children and Families will only invest in scientifically evidence-based treatments for children’s mental health going forward, officials announced Thursday.

“We have come to a time in our evolution as a system, to no longer subject our families to practices, services and approaches that don’t meet their needs, when we know we have evidence of services that do,” DCF Deputy Commissioner Michael Williams said during a virtual press conference. “We are pivoting quite rapidly in Connecticut, particularly for our children to say, ‘We will only invest ... in those practices, those approaches, those treatment interventions that show evidence that they work.’ That’s what our children deserve.”

Williams said that while there is no list detailing which services won’t be prioritized any more, the department does have a list of services “that have gone through the rigorous process of getting the designation as an evidence-based program.”

He added that the state must ensure families are get the help they are asking for, rather than a service that doesn’t work for them “because that’s all we have.”

“If we have to make investments strategically ... our preference going forward is investing in the services that we know work,” he said.

Jeffrey Vanderploeg, president and CEO of the Child Health and Development Institute in Farmington, said unlike other forms of talk-based therapy, or “treatment as usual,” evidence-based treatments are developed in an academic setting by research teams.

Through scientific studies, their effectiveness is tested in treating mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression or trauma. If they are proven to be effective in research settings, the treatments will then be rolled out to other community settings. Vanderploeg noted that evidence-based treatments also provide clinicians with techniques, manuals and protocols detailing how to provide the best care.

“If your child had diabetes or cancer, you would want them to have the most scientifically effective and proven treatments available,” said the clinical psychologist. “Mental health conditions are no different. We want to have the best available science, the best available interventions for our children and families.”

Hector Glynn, chief operating officer of behavioral health treatment organization The Village for Families and Children in Hartford, described the guided nature of evidenced-based treatment methods.

“It’s not just talk therapy or a conversation. They’re moving from one skill or module to the next,” he said. “There’s a road map, so you can define when treatment is going to end. It’s time-limited, with ideas of what types of supports will be put in place during that time.”

The state DCF, a partner of the Child Health and Development Institute for more than a decade, began investing in evidence-based treatments in the early 2000s and continued to expand efforts after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Vanderploeg explained.

Overall, “We have trained more than 60 community based clinics and schools to deliver at least on of these evidence based treatments,” he said. “We have trained over 1,800 clinicians and well over 15,000 children and their families have received one of these evidence based treatments.”

Vanderploeg discussed key findings on evidenced-based treatment from a study the nonprofit published earlier this year in partnership with the state DCF in the Children and Youth Services Review. The research, which compared evidenced-based treatments to mental health interventions not based on scientific evidence, included about 46,400 children who received behavioral health services at one of 25 outpatient clinics in the state system from 2013-2017.

Researchers found that while all mental health interventions were effective, the structured, evidence-based treatments were “significantly more effective,” providing “55-75% greater symptom improvement than usual care,” said Vanderploeg.

They also found evidence-based treatments to be particularly promising for children of color, he added. While Black, white and Hispanic children benefited from usual talk-based therapy, “there were still gaps between these groups in outcomes by end of treatment.”

“But what we found with our [evidenced-based treatments] is that they produced outcomes that significantly reduced those gaps between racial/ethnic groups,” he said, highlighting the importance of making treatment accessible to families in their homes and schools, as well as through telemedicine.

A local mother who went by Jennifer described her daughter’s experience receiving evidence based-treatment through The Village as more engaging than what another one of her children had experienced through a different provider.

“I found this to be more successful because it was more hands on ... not just go there for therapy and express whatever. This helped her to live it and implement it in her everyday life,” she said.

Amanda Blanco can be reached at ablanco@courant.com.

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