Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
March 20, 2006, Vol. 06-27

SAMHSA Announces Changes to National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced release of a report detailing enhancements being made to the agency's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). The report was published in the March 14 Federal Register.

Historically NREPP has been a nationally recognized tool useful for identifying and promoting effective interventions to prevent substance abuse. The changes being instituted, following extensive public review and comment, will broaden NREPP, creating a resource for the latest information on the scientific basis for and practicality of specific programs and interventions designed to prevent and/or treat mental and substance use disorders. The new protocols and procedures will help reduce the significant lag-time between the generation of new scientific knowledge and its application by community-based prevention and treatment programs and providers. The changes provide transparency, accuracy, and timeliness of both the NREPP process and the end product registry itself.

The report describes:

. The broadened base of NREPP to include not only substance abuse
prevention but also treatment of substance use and mental disorders,
and prevention of mental health problems.

. The new process through which programs and practices will be identified
and evaluated for initial and ongoing inclusion in NREPP

. How the new presentation of NREPP content can promote better decisions
by state and community programs looking for models that will work for
them;

. The public process - and a summary of the more than 130 public
comments - that helped drive the shape and structure of the new NREPP.

For more information about the new NREPP, including a copy of the report, click on "National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices FRN" under the "Quick Picks" section on the SAMHSA home page at www.samhsa.gov.
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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.