Criteria for Decision Making

Addressing the following questions may provide criteria to guide decision-making about how to best incorporate evidence-based practices, promising practices, and practice-based evidence into agencies and service systems:

• What are the needs of the target population and subsets of that population?
• What are the cultural needs and wishes of the target population and subsets?
• Which specific interventions address the needs of the target population and subsets?
• Are all stakeholders at the planning and decision-making table (including families, youth, practitioners, agency and community representatives, funders)?
• What specific outcomes are desired?
• How broad or how limited are the prevention or intervention goals (universal, selected, or targeted)?
• What is the context and what are the values in which the intervention will be imbedded (family/child centered, system of care, cultural, etc.)?
• What is required of all involved users (provider agencies, practitioners, families, funders)?
• How practical, acceptable, and feasible are the intervention options?
• What are the financing and reimbursement options for training, coaching, on-going technical assistance, assessing fidelity and outcomes, and delivering the intervention?
• What is the capacity and readiness of the system, agencies, and workforce to incorporate the new intervention options?