Suchergebnisse

"During the nearly half a century that I have been teaching courses on program evaluation I have not found a textbook that fit my course as well as I preferred. The main problem has been that some books cover too much research methods content that duplicates what students learn in their research methods courses, while other books don't have enough of that content. The problem is understandable, because program evaluation is carried out using research methods. Another reason why I have been dissatisfied with the books with heavy doses of research content is that so much of that content is pitched to wellfunded evaluations of national and international projects for which program evaluation is a key component of the program from its outset. Very sophisticated research designs are not only feasible in such projects, they are expected. Program evaluation in local social and human service agencies - where most of my students begin their careers - is unlike program evaluation in those projects in several important ways"--

Evidence-based interventions are increasingly being required by third-party payers and an evidence-based orientation has come to define ethical practice. This compendium of short, how-to chapters focuses on the programs and interventions to prevent child maltreatment that have the best scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. Interventions and programs discussed include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, Multisystemic Therapy, Coping Cat, and many more. Busy practitioners will appreciate this book's implementation of evidence-based practices by providing the practical and 'what now' rather than using the typical academic approach.

Epstein makes a strong argument for the value of clinical data mining (CDM), although he minimizes some of the potential limitations in that methodology, such as attrition. Epstein's portrayal of evidence-based practice (EBP) as practitioner-bashing and treasuring intervention manuals overlooks the emphasis in the EBP process on the need for practitioners to use their clinical expertise and judgment in deciding whether and how to implement research supported interventions. His portrayal of EBP as cherishing randomized clinical trials to the point of demeaning all other forms of research also is a misrepresentation of the EBP process and a straw man argument. Although CDM is one way to try to bridge the research–practice gap, arguing that it is perhaps the only or best way to do so overstates the case. Instead of bashing practitioners, as Epstein implies, EBP empowers them.

This keynote address discusses previous and ongoing efforts to reduce the persistent gap between research and practice in social work and offers recommendations for further bridging that gap. Key among those recommendations is the need to conduct descriptive outcome studies of efforts to adapt research-supported interventions in everyday practice settings to develop a database of case studies that can be analyzed to ferret out the factors associated with variations in client outcomes. These studies would have additional value in bridging the gap by showing agencies whether the intervention they adapted is as effective in their setting and with their clients as they hoped it would be and whether they might need to tweak it or replace it. The keynote address also discusses ways to incentivize academia-based researchers to conduct such studies and the impact of pressure on them to obtain major research funding.

This article provides an autobiographical account of the evolution and role of social work research since the beginning of my career as a social worker in the late 1960s. It traces the bumpy road from the days when the profession's attitude about research was, at best, ambivalent to today's emphasis on evidence-informed practice and empirically supported treatments. It ends by identifying several new challenges and their implications for future efforts to help further bridge the gap between research and practice in social work.

• Summary: This article examines the precursors and advent of the evidence-based practice (EBP) movement, identifies feasibility obstacles to increasing the emphasis on teaching EBP in social work, offers some suggestions for alleviating those obstacles, and discusses arguments for and against the proposition that EBP is being oversold by advocates for increasing its emphasis in social work practice and education.• Findings and Applications: It suggests that that if we increase the emphasis on EBP in the curriculum, we must so in an appropriate manner that gives adequate attention to the various kinds of EBP questions and their respective research hierarchies, to the significant degree of practitioner flexibility encouraged by the EBP process, and to the important role of theory and relationship factors in that process.

This article synthesizes the highlights emanating from the proceedings of a National Symposium on Improving the Teaching of Evidence-Based Practice. Most of the ideas in it have been culled from the articles in this issue, and a few were culled from the symposium discussions. I do not take credit for any of these ideas, only for the synthesis of them.

This epilogue identifies efforts underway to implement the recommendations that have emerged based on the symposium papers and proceedings. Highlights of the initial efforts include establishing linkages with existing social work organizations and working within them, having follow-up symposia and presentations on evidence-based practice at various conferences, and reacting as a group to the preliminary new Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards draft from the Council on Social Work Education.