Evidence-Based Policies & Practices

Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) is a civil court procedure whereby a judge orders an adult with serious mental illness (SMI) to comply with community-based treatment. Developed as a less restrictive alternative to involuntary hospitalization, AOT focuses on individuals at risk of clinical deterioration or rehospitalization because they do not voluntarily comply with prescribed treatment.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working with researchers, human services agency leaders, and persons with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of primary prevention within human services.

The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-432) requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare an annual report to Congress on indicators and predictors of “welfare dependence.” That Act requires the report to include three programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

Evidence Gap Map: Research Report and Overview

Compendium of Programs: Research Report and Overview The Reconnecting Youth compendium of programs provides an overview of 78 programs and the practices they employ to support young people who experience disconnection from school and work during their transition to adulthood.

This brief presents considerations for program administrators and other practitioners around increasing the use of primary prevention in human services systems to shift from responding to families after they are in crisis to preventing the crisis before it occurs.

This brief provides key considerations for policy designers and funding partners—such as federal staff, technical experts, and philanthropic partners—on incorporating primary prevention into human services delivery.

This brief highlights a new way of delivering primary prevention services that promotes equity by relying on the guidance and leadership of people with lived experience. The policy designers and service providers behind prevention services should have lived experience and/or co-create these services with people who do.

Telehealth utilization has changed over time since the steep increase from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report updates prior findings on national trends of telehealth use through an analysis using the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey data from April 2021 through August 2022.

The Fiscal Year (FY) HHS 2024 Evaluation plan lists a total of thirty-two (32) evaluations from ten (10) Operating and Staff Divisions across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).