Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) provide a standardised framework that healthcare professionals can use to inform better decision-making for a health condition. 

We are compiling the most up-to-date evidence, clinical consensus and research to write CPGs for common mental health conditions to improve consistency and efficacy of mental health care for children and young people.

In October 2023, we published our first Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Anxiety in Children and Young People. This guideline was the first of its kind in Australia and has been endorsed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

It also helped inform the review and update HealthPathways Melbourne's Anxiety in Children and Adolescents pathway, which is now in line with our CPG. 

In 2025, we are working on a new CPG focusing on suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm in children and young people.

Our approach

To develop clinical practice guidelines, we use a standardised evidence-based process, supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

This development process includes systematic reviews of evidence, a multidisciplinary development group that includes clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience, and public consultation prior to publication.

The 12–18-month process ensures that the developed CPGs are reliable, usable and trustworthy.