Suchergebnisse

This title describes an approach to developing and testing effective community-based programmes for at-risk children and youth. The book shows how elements of risk and resilience positive youth development, and organizational collaboration are used to develop a comprehensive intervention framework called the Integrated Prevention and Early Intervention (IPEI) Model.

Behavioral health problems in young people are often addressed through costly and ineffective treatment, rehabilitation, and control strategies aimed at helping children and adolescents after problems are identified. Evidence indicates that many behavioral health problems can be prevented before they occur, thereby saving significant individual, economic, and social costs. Although policy, practice, and research in reducing behavioral health problems have increased dramatically in the past several decades, social work has been slow to join other disciplines in the critical debate about the most effective and humane ways to prevent behavioral health problems. It is time for social work to adopt prevention as a guiding framework for practice, policy, advocacy, and research in behavioral health settings.

Intervention research is an important, yet often neglected, focus of social work scholars and investigators. The purpose of this article is to review significant milestones and recent advances in intervention research. Methodological and analytical developments in intervention research are discussed in the context of science and social work. Critical Time Intervention, a psychosocial approach to preventing homelessness and improving mental health outcomes among adult populations, is described as an example of rigorous intervention research in social work.

Recent advances in the field of prevention have led to a deeper understanding of the causes of adolescent problem behavior and to the identification of efficacious strategies to prevent delinquency, drug use, and other antisocial conduct. This 2009 Aaron Rosen lecture to members of the Society for Social Work and Research traces the evolution of prevention approaches in the United States. A public health model of intervention based on the principles of risk and protection is introduced as an important development in the field of prevention science. Examples from two longitudinal studies are used to illustrate how advances in prevention have led to positive changes in the lives of vulnerable children and youth. Practice, policy, and research challenges necessary to increase the impact of prevention are discussed.

In this report, the author responds to papers by Gambrill and by Howard and Allen-Meares that call for significant pedagogical reforms in social work education based on principles of evidence-based practice (EBP). His remarks focus on the promise of EBP as an agent of broad-based reform in social work education and on the implementation of EBP principles in the social work curriculum. Additional recommendations regarding the application of EBP principles to educational reform and teaching are identified.

Objective: This study examined the effects of a collaborative intervention targeting 107 juvenile detainees with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems. Method: Changes in mental health problems, substance use, and delinquency between pretest and 3-and 6-month follow-up were assessed. Three distinct clusters of detained youth characterized by varying levels of self-reported symptoms and behaviors across these three problem domains were included in a series of repeated measures analyses. Results: Significant time effects were found for anxiety and depression and for the frequency of substance use and delinquency between pretest and 3- and 6-month follow-up. Significant time by cluster interactions were found for mental health problems of obsessive-compulsive behavior and interpersonal sensitivity and for property and drug-related offending. Conclusions: Cross-system collaboration among mental health, substance abuse, and juvenile justice systems is a promising approach for treating delinquent youth with co-occurring problem behaviors.

Guidelines for clinical practice have proliferated in recent years. Numerous studies indicate that guidelines can increase empirically based practice and improve clients' outcomes. Guidelines for social work practice would also promote more informed client decision making, improve clinical training in schools of social work, encourage more cost-effective and accountable practice, and help codify current knowledge in controversial practice areas. The National Association of Social Workers should institute a guidelines development program and ensure that guidelines reflect traditional social work values and the best in available scientific evidence and practice experience.

The authors summarize and respond to the comments made by the respondents to their target article on practice guidelines. Among the issues addressed are the limited scientific foundations of selected practice guidelines, potential resistance from practitioners, costs of guideline development, poorly operationalized guidelines, the potential ineffectiveness of guidelines, ethical considerations, and contextual factors. The authors conclude with an action plan to promote the practice guideline movement within social work.