Promising Practices | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

A promising practice is a given practice’s potential to become evidence-based. This potential is acknowledged in identifying an “emerging” or “promising” practice. The promising practices of today will, with sound theoretical rationale and thorough science, become the EBPs of tomorrow. For the purposes of this section, a promising practice is a behavioral health intervention that appears to be effective but does not yet have enough evaluation data to consistently demonstrate positive outcomes.

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Most, if not all, of the current evidence-based practices (EBPs) in mental health were developed in urban areas. Implementing these EBPs with full fidelity in rural areas is typically impossible, due to limitations in personnel, vast geographic areas, and other resource shortages. Additionally, states are mandating the use of EBPs, with possible penalties for those counties or areas that do not comply. This places rural areas in a difficult position given the issues noted.

There are many challenges to providing behavioral health services in rural America. But, despite the challenges, there are programs that have a positive impact on the behavioral health of rural Americans. By sharing information about these successful programs, other providers can learn from these models of practice and incorporate these successful program designs into their own communities.

There are several approaches that can help rural mental health systems in regards to Evidence Based and Promising practices. These are: 1) developing rural-specific promising and, ultimately, evidence-based practices (EBPs); 2) applying “core components” of existing EBPs that show the most clinical effectiveness in rural; and 3) developing a continuum of care model that provides reality-based standards for rural areas.