Evidence-based behavioral health programs have long demonstrated their ability to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. Yet securing funding, building workforce capacity, navigating regulatory requirements, and sustaining services at scale often create barriers that prevent successful models from reaching the communities that need them most.

Drawing from work with the Family Centered Treatment Foundation and Arkansas Department of Human Services, PCG developed a practical blueprint to help states and service providers implement evidence-based programs more quickly while establishing long-term, sustainable funding pathways.

PCG’s new brief, “Blueprint to Expand Evidence-based Program,” written by Karen Hallenbeck and Abigail Sherburne, outlines a replicable framework for launching, scaling, and sustaining evidence-based behavioral health programs.

Lessons From Arkansas

Family Centered Treatment (FCT) is an evidence-based, trauma-focused model of home-based family therapy designed to reduce the need for out-of-home placements while helping stabilize children, youth, and families experiencing behavioral health challenges. Through a coordinated implementation effort, Arkansas expanded access to the model across the state, generating more than 1,170 referrals in just 18 months and reaching 68 of the state’s 75 counties. The initiative also achieved approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for FCT to be reimbursed as an “in lieu of” service under Medicaid.

“Many communities have longstanding distrust of state mental health services and social stigma that prevent them from seeking the help families desperately need. Non-traditional behavioral health programs that are evidence-based, like the FCT model, are deeply needed to meet families where they are at and support keeping families together,” said Sherburne, Senior Consultants at PCG. “State and federal bureaucratic systems make it so that discovering a promising service model is not enough to scale its impact. The intentional cross-sector collaboration among DHS, OSAMH, the FCT Foundation and the PASSEs, and FCT Foundation’s wraparound provider supports from day one of the pilot, were clear difference makers in the successful implementation of FCT across the state of Arkansas.”

The effort addressed a common challenge facing states that seek to implement evidence-based interventions that are not classified as “well-supported” by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. While such programs may demonstrate strong outcomes, reimbursement limitations can make scaling difficult. Arkansas’s experience illustrates how Medicaid can serve as an alternative funding pathway, expanding access while supporting long-term sustainability.

“Community evidence-based programs play a vital role in addressing the needs of children and youth and their families facing behavioral health challenges. They help to keep families together while they receive intensive supportive services,” said Hallenbeck, Evaluation Director at PCG. “Funding, however, often limits an agency’s ability to provide valuable evidence-based services to families in need. Providing states and evidence-based programs with a roadmap to expand services and access alternative funding sources was a key achievement of the Family Centered Treatment Foundation and Arkansas Department of Human Services’ evaluation of their expedited initiative to expand the FCT model across the state.”

Drawing on this work, the blueprint is built around six interconnected phases to guide organizations:

1. Identify the Need and Secure Funding
2. Build Infrastructure and Partnerships
3. Implement and Expand the Pilot
4. Address Policy and Regulatory Challenges
5. Refine Referral Processes and Stakeholder Engagement
6. Ensure Long-Term Sustainability

Arkansas’s experience demonstrated that implementation of an evidence-based behavioral health model is possible when stakeholders align around a common vision and deliberate implementation strategy. Structured provider engagement, workforce development, community outreach, payer collaboration, and policy alignment all played critical roles in the initiative’s success.

Perhaps most importantly, the blueprint provides a transferable framework that other states can adapt to their own environments. As demand for effective behavioral health services continues to grow, organizations need practical approaches that move beyond theory and into implementation. By combining a phased rollout strategy with sustainable funding pathways, the Arkansas model offers a compelling example of how evidence-based programs can expand their reach and deliver lasting impact for children, youth, and families.

Read Blueprint to Expand Evidence-based Program here

Learn more:
• PCG’s Children’s Behavioral Health Services Consulting
• PCG’s Human Services Solutions

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