Evidence-based mental health treatments (EBTs), on average, outperform treatment-as-usual, but there are multiple barriers to use them. First, selecting an appropriate EBT among the hundreds that have been developed can be overwhelming. Second, many EBTs require extensive post-graduate training which can be expensive and time consuming. Third, historically, EBTs have been developed for specific diagnoses or presenting problems. Most clinicians provide services to caseloads that include a range of different diagnoses and increasingly to clients with co-occurring conditions. This means that clinicians would need to master a battery of EBTs to address the myriad of presenting concerns in their caseloads. These challenges hamper EBT utilization.

Fortunately, there are EBTs designed to reduce these barriers. Transdiagnostic (I.e., cross-diagnostic) EBTs have been developed to provide a one-treatment solution for a wide variety of presenting problems. These treatments target core processes found across multiple disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, and other mood-related disorders). Clinicians are trained in one treatment and can customize it by selecting the most applicable modules for a client’s situation. Transdiagnostic approaches have been implemented at-scale in large public mental health systems. They are effective and efficient uses of agency resources.

OBJECTIVES

1. Conference participants will be able to provide rationale for the utilization of transdiagnostic treatments. 
   
2. Conference participants will be able to apply transdiagnostic treatment techniques in their clinical work.