Welcome to the Michigan Mental Health Evidence-Based Practice Initiative website!

Advancements in all areas of medicine (basic medical knowledge, treatment strategies, interpretation of clinical data, diagnostics, and pharmacology, to name a few) over the past several decades have occurred so rapidly that physicians and practitioners are challenged to assimilate their existing knowledge base with new strategies in order to treat patients optimally.

Guidelines and algorithms are among the various tools that have been designed to manage large amounts of new information and keep everyday medical practice in step with current research. In routine practice, however, guidelines and algorithms are significantly underutilized, primarily due to limits in their immediate availability and ease of use at the time of patient care.

The goal of this initiative is to improve the quality of mental health services in Michigan through dissemination and adoption of guidelines and algorithms for evidence-based pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder. The initiative is being piloted in the public and private sectors, in urban and non-urban settings, and in different regions of the state.

A distinguished panel of 25 Michigan mental health experts has developed an action plan to improve the quality of mental health care in Michigan. The plan—Closing the Quality Gap in Michigan: A Prescription for Mental Health Care—focuses on encouraging and assisting physicians to adopt best-practice or evidence-based practice (EBP) in the prescription and monitoring of drugs for people with major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.