4 - (IOP 31) Building Bridges Between the Evidence Base and Patient Preferences: Practical Steps for Shared Decision-making in Youth Mental Health Care

Shared Decision-Making (SDM) emphasizes active collaboration between therapists, youth, and caregivers in mental health treatment planning, aligning therapeutic decisions with families’ values, goals, and preferences while leveraging empirical evidence to guide clinical choices. Despite broad endorsement from professional organizations and ethical guidelines promoting patient-centered care, SDM is infrequently and inconsistently utilized in clinical settings, particularly in youth psychotherapy, leaving many young people without a voice in their mental health treatment. This limited implementation persists despite evidence that youth and families prefer involvement in treatment decisions and that such involvement can lead to increased satisfaction, reduced decisional conflict, and enhanced engagement (Langer et al., 2021; see Langer & Jensen-Doss, 2018).
Challenges hindering the widespread adoption of SDM include: limited availability and clinician awareness of diverse evidence-based treatment options; difficulty facilitating complex decision discussions across varied developmental stages; and navigating disagreement among youth and caregivers about treatment priorities. To bridge this divide, clinicians require practical, evidence-informed strategies that make SDM both feasible and effective in routine clinical practice.
This proposed talk will present clear, actionable steps to enhance clinicians’ abilities to engage youth and families in SDM. Drawing on our recent randomized clinical trial (Langer et al., 2021), attendees will learn how clinicians successfully guided families through an SDM protocol addressing key decision points including: identifying treatment targets, deciding who participates in therapy, and selecting specific evidence-based therapeutic techniques. Additionally, we will introduce an initial version of the SDM tool we are developing through our ongoing research and clinical practice. The tool, which will be freely available to attendees, is specifically designed to facilitate collaborative treatment planning with youth and caregivers. By promoting SDM in practice, clinicians can better align treatment with the lived experiences, cultural contexts, and expressed goals of youth and their families, thereby fulfilling the core principles of evidence-based practice and inclusive, affirming care.