From good foundations: the role of treatment guidelines for psychiatrists - an overview of the RANZCP CPG project

Objective: To provide an overview on the role of evidence-based clinical guidelines in the context of the consultation, dissemination and implementation planning phases of the new RANZCP guidelines for psychiatrists and other specialist mental health care providers. Conclusions: Despite a vast literature on guidelines and evidence-based practice in general medicine and allied health, little is published on these themes in mental health. Anxieties about the introduction of guidelines often surface during the consultation stage of developing new guidelines and provide clues to barriers for implementation. Facilitating discussion about the pros and cons of guidelines is prudent for informing dissemination planning and is a necessary precursor to any programs intended to achieve implementation. Guidelines must reflect a fit between clinician aspirations, the evidence, and consumer expectations if they are to be adopted into routine service delivery. The six RANZCP guidelines will be foundation documents to ensure that all practitioners have access to the basic tools to guide practice. In particular, they will contain the evidence status and rationale behind recommended treatments, so that this information can be at hand or committed to memory to justify and share clinical decision making with consumers