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This book illustrates, step by step, how to practice evidence-based group work. As group workers are increasingly being held accountable to evaluate, monitor, and improve their practice, there are scant resources available that apply specifically to their practice. The book is organized around the process and philosophy of evidence-based practice, and consists of the following four stages, which provides the framework for the book: how to formulate a practice question; search for evidence; critically appraise the evidence for its research merit, impact, and applicability; and apply the best available evidence and evaluate if desirable outcomes were achieved. The evidence-based group work framework teaches how to apply skillfully best practices through practical learning activities, case examples, research designs, step-by-step guidelines and checklists, assessment tips, and detailed instructions for formulating questions and evaluating answers.

Evidence-based practice in school mental health explains the nuts and bolts of infusing research throughout school-based practice following guidelines set forth by the US Department of Education. In clear, step-by-step detail, it provides the conceptual tools needed to locate, evaluate, and apply evidence in order to demonstrate positive outcomes for students. With its case examples and exercises, this book offers a pragmatic approach to informing practice decisions with appropriate research to ensure that students receive the best service. The chapters amount to an easy-to-follow road map to evidence-based practice (EBP), explaining how to ask the right questions; search for evidence; appraise the literature while avoiding the pitfalls of web-based information; adapt and apply evidence in a developmentally and culturally sensitive way; and evaluate the results. Detailed examples from practice and adaptable sample spreadsheets to evaluate students' progress make the goal of accountability attainable for school professionals who otherwise would struggle to find the time, resources, and support to utilize research in their work.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been considered a gold standard for health and social service research for generations of professionals. However, even as methods have developed to accommodate a large number of professional perspectives and fields of intervention, few have adequately addressed the complex nature of RCTs conducted in community settings. In this book, Drs. Solomon, Cavanaugh, and Draine draw on their extensive experience conducting randomized controlled trials to compile a practical and accessible guide to RCTs in community-based practice settings. While providing a detailed, common-sense manual, the authors address numerous design and implementation challenges that are unique to practice settings, which are less-controlled environments than the typical clinic or consultation room. Such issues include: community and agency buy-in to support collaboration, addressing confounds to internal and external validity, and fidelity with complex interventions. These challenges are addressed through a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods that have supported RCT research in community-based settings. This pragmatic guide provides a thorough review of the basic ingredients for working through each step of the RCT process. It offers encouragement and support to enter this richly rewarding and challenging research area.

This book offers school social work students and veteran practitioners a new framework for choosing their interventions, based on the best available evidence. It synthesizes the evidence-based practice (EBP) process with recent conceptual frameworks of school social work clinical practice offered by leading scholars and policymakers. Many other books on EBP try to fit empirically validated treatments into practice contexts without considering the multiple barriers to implementing evidence-based practices in places as complicated and multi-faceted as schools. Additionally, there are vital questions in the literature about what the best levels for intervention are in school social work. Responding to the complexity of applying EBP in schools, this volume offers a conceptual framework that addresses the real-world concerns of practitioners as they work to provide the best services to their school clients. For each domain of school social work practice, the authors critically review interventions, presenting the current research with guidelines for addressing such implementation issues as cost, school culture, adaptations for special populations, and negotiating multiple arenas of practice. In addition, the chapters are grounded in the process of evidence-based practice, illustrating how school practitioners can pose useful questions, search for relevant evidence, appraise the evidence, apply it in keeping with client values, and monitor the results.

School social work enters its 2nd century as a profession still conflicted about its central mission. Are school social workers meant to be “in-house” clinicians providing services to kids in need, or are they meant to be involved in program development to enhance the social and emotional learning of all students in a school? How much time should they devote to serving whole families, or consulting with teachers? Whatever school social workers claim to do in their schools, it’s clear that they are going to have to prove that they are effective doing it. The demands of federal legislation and state requirements for certification are making it increasingly necessary that school social workers demonstrate that they are highly qualified school-based mental health and social service professionals who can demonstrate outcomes that impact school “bottom line” issues like student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Rather than recoil from this pressure, school social workers can utilize the skills of evidence based practice (EBP) to help them enhance both their effectiveness and their knowledge of interventions that work to help students, teachers, parents, and staff in school contexts. This book demonstrates how EBP can be integrated into school social worker’s daily practice, advancing the debate about where social workers can and should intervene, and how to do so effectively. Highlighting primary clinical issues, family problems, and school-wide needs faced by school social workers, helps practitioners make the best use of evidence to be flexible, effective advocates at all levels of practice.

Qualitative synthesis within the family of systematic reviews meets an urgent need to use knowledge derived from qualitative studies to inform practice, research, and policy. Despite the contingent nature of evidence gleaned from the synthesis of qualitative studies, systematic synthesis is an important technique and, used judiciously, can deepen our understanding of the contextual dimensions that emerge from qualitative research. This book presents an overview for planning, developing, and implementing qualitative synthesis within existing protocols and guidelines for conducting systematic reviews. The book also explores methodological challenges, including: the philosophical tensions of integrating qualitative synthesis within the family of systematic reviews; the balance of comprehensive and iterative information retrieval strategies to locate and screen qualitative research; the use of appraisal tools to assess quality of qualitative studies; the various approaches to synthesize qualitative studies, including interpretive, integrated, and aggregative; and the tensions between the generalizability and transferability of findings that emerge from qualitative synthesis.

This book reviews the evidence basis for the treatment of mental health disorders that present in children and adolescents, using both the American Psychological Association Division 12 Task Force Criteria for empirically supported treatment and the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The context of the child and its influence on the development of the mental health disorder, as well as treatment and recovery, is appraised through the risk and resilience framework. Barriers, facilitators, and recommendations for the practice and research of evidence-based treatment for child and adolescent mental health disorders are advanced.

Research has already been a significant factor in child welfare policy in recent years, but this book demonstrates that it has taken a leading role in the field to spur and guide change. The chapters in this book assess the effect of research on the full spectrum of child welfare services. The book covers every base. The opening chapters situate child welfare research in the modern context; they are followed by discussions of evidence-based practice in the field, arguably its most pressing concern now. Recent years have seen historic rises in the number of children adopted through public agencies and, accordingly, permanent placement and family ties are critical topics that occupy the book's core, along with chapters broaching the thorny questions that surround decision-making and risk assessment. The urgent need for a more effective use of research and evidence is highlighted again with looks at the future of child protection and how concrete data can influence policy and help children. Finally, in recognition of the growing importance of a global view, closing chapters address international issues in child welfare research, including an examination of policies from abroad and a multinational comparison of the economic challenges facing single mothers and their children.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) promises to have a profound impact on social work practice, education, and scholarship, but adopting EBP depends on the availability of evidence to support this endeavour and on strategies to synthesize this information. Systematic reviews provide a comprehensive, unbiased method for retrieving and synthesizing relevant research. Finding and Evaluating Evidence: Systematic Reviews and Evidence-based Practice is a concise introduction to systematic reviews that describes the steps required to complete a review and the criteria that can be used to assess the quality of existing reviews. This pocket guide provides straight-forward information on how to 1) define a search question that clearly defines the parameters of the problem, 2) develop a search strategy that is transparent and comprehensive to insure that all relevant research is included in the review, 3) assess the quality and credibility of existing research, and 4) summarize the available research to support EBP in social work. One of the distinguishing features of this book is that both quantitative and qualitative synthesis methods are presented, and examples are provided to illustrate the steps and decisions associated with each approach to research synthesis. This pocket guide is an excellent introduction to EBP and systematic reviews that will be valued by social work students, practitioners, and scholars.

This book aims to make familiar current methods and standards for research synthesis. It describes systematic reviews and meta-analyses, with numerous examples relevant to social work practice and policy. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis can overcome important limitations that are inherent in traditional, narrative summaries of research. The process of conducting a systematic review is described. The book is organized according to the steps involved in conducting a meta-analysis within a systematic review.

The history of mental health service delivery has been marked by an emphasis on clients’ vulnerabilities and deficits. As treatment programs have moved out of hospitals and into communities, however, the need to work with clients in developing real-world, practical skills, such as job training, has never been more important. Versions of this approach traditionally include skills training classes, job clubs, and sheltered employment, but have not been successful in helping people with severe mental illness gain competitive employment. This book describes the theory, empirical support, and practice of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach to supported employment. IPS is the most widely studied and validated approach to supported employment for people with severe mental illness. The overall goals of IPS are to assist clients in finding jobs that are consistent with their preferences and skills, and to support their efforts in working. The book is divided into three sections: 1) Conceptual and Empirical Support for Individual Placement and Support; 2) Practice Guidelines for Implementing Supported Employment; and 3) Special Issues. Many vignettes and sample documents that provide practical information are included.