In de Verenigde Staten heeft de United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) ACT benoemd tot evidence based behandeling (http://174.140.153.167/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=191&). Dit besluit is genomen op grond van grondig wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar effectiviteit en processen binnen ACT. Om het met de woorden van één van de meest bekende psychologen ter wereld, David Barlow te zeggen:

"Once in a while, there is a unique contribution to psychotherapy. Even more rare is the grounding of that contribution in sound philosophy, on the one hand, and (hard research) data on the other. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy represents such an effort."

Hieronder volgt de brief van de grondlegger van ACT, Steven Hayes, aan de ACBS leden naar aanleiding van het bovenstaande bericht:

Good news. The United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has now listed ACT as an empirically supported method as part of its National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP).

It is now available on the NREPP Web site at http://174.140.153.167/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=191

This listing and report has been the work of an entire community over more than three years.
http://www.acbsbene.nl/administrator/index.php?option=com_content&sectionid=0&task=edit&cid[]=64
A graduate student of mine, Doug Long helped with the original submission in late 2007. In Spring 2008 SAMHSA decided ACT was ready for review for possible listing as an evidence-based procedure.  In 2009 the review began. I served as coordinator; Jason Luoma coordinated in the area of dissemination; our Executive Director, Emily Rodrigues, and ACBS staffer Jen Plumb, and Doug pitched in, along with many other members of the Association and the Board in specific areas. Hundreds of emails and pages later we are finished with the process.

The materials were rated by a team of independent scholars contracted by the federal government. Many questions were asked -- they wanted to know a lot. They looked at our website, DVD, read books, and combed through research articles. A big part of the report is not just "is it evidence based" but also "can you implement it." Readiness for dissemination was a major part of the evaluation.

Now, finally, they have decided to list ACT and have issued a report on it.

I think it is a very good and fair characterization of where we are.
Our research evidence was scored 3.325 out of 4.
Our dissemination efforts received a perfect score of 4.0 on a 4.0 scale.

This should have an impact in the United States, especially with state agencies and the like.
This report can also be used worldwide to help with other agencies or individual who need evidence that ACT is evidence-based.

By the way could only submit a limited number empirical studies and some of the others were submitted for technical reasons (e.g., to show the measures used are valid). No need to go into that here except to say that there were reasons behind each of these decisions to submit certain things and not others.

Congratulations to us, gang

- S

Steven C. Hayes
Foundation Professor