¶ … Program-Evaluation -- Evidence-Based Practice: Case Study Review There is growing recognition that the used of evidence-based practices promotes improved clinical outcomes and can help guide clinicians in their respective disciplines. This paper draws on the Clinician's Guide to Evidence-Based Practices: Mental Health and the Addictions to provide a description of a salient case study and the identification of the critical elements that require the review of published research to guide professional practice. In addition, a summary of a research study by Spengler, P. M., White, M. J., Egisdottir (2009) that informs evidence-based counseling practice related to the selected case study as it would occur in a specialization area is followed by a discussion concerning relevant ethical, legal, and socio-cultural considerations that apply to the case and research article selected. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the need for evidence-based practices to guide professional practice today are presented in the conclusion.

Description of a Salient Case Study: "Jonathon, an engaging and rambunctious 8-year-old white boy."

This young learner is a middle child of married, working parents who live together but who experience ongoing marital strife characterized by a pattern of separation and reconciliation. Although the case study makes no mention of Jonathon's kindergarten teacher, the point is made that due to his unspecified classroom behaviors, both his pre-school and first-grade teachers believed this young man suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Moreover, even Jonathon's mother concedes...

12). Based on an evaluation by a school psychologist when Jonathon was in the first grade, a diagnosis of ADHD (mixed type) and mild to moderate oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) accompanied by family tensions. Despite an offer from Jonathon's pediatrician (who ordinarily treats his asthma) to prescribe psychostimulants for these diagnosed disorders, the young man's father is strongly opposed; however, both his mother and father are concerned about Jonathon's condition and both are amenable to participating in "a few family meetings" only due to their heavy working schedules and ongoing marital discord which preclude extensive outpatient treatments.
Analysis of Need for Evidence-Based Practice in Jonathon's Case

Prior to 1968 when the American Psychiatric Association first included a mention of hyperkinetic impulse disorder in the second edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), there were no children in the United States diagnosed with ADHD because the condition simply did not exist formally (Holland & Higuera, 2015). Just a half century later, though, between 5% and 11% of all children and adolescents in the U.S. are being diagnosed with ADHD which makes the disorder one of the most commonly diagnosed conditions of young people in clinical settings in the United States today (Qureshi & Schofield, 2014). These statistics means that approximately 6 million American children are currently diagnosed with ADHD (Understanding ADHD in children, 2016).

While the potential exists that the increased diagnosis of ADHD is attributable, at least in part, to growing awareness of the disorder on the part of educators, parents and clinicians, the possibility also exists that this heightened awareness has translated into a tendency to diagnosis all children who engage in disruptive behaviors as suffering from ADHD. The nonspecific diagnostic symptoms of ADHD, however, are commonly associated with a number of other childhood-onset disorders including mood and anxiety disorders as well as the various types of…