Advisory

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.

SAMHSA, is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation’s substance abuse prevention, addictions, treatment, and mental health services delivery system.

SAMHSA is An Agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service