Social Work 795: Evaluation of Social Work Practice and Programs

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work;Practice Research is the first international handbook to focus on practice research for social work. It is divided into five sections: State of the art Methodologies, Pedagogies, Applications, Expanding the frontiers

From understanding the concepts of research and gathering data, to writing it all up and sharing knowledge, this book will guide your students to become researchers by giving them: a confident start with clarity on core concepts and getting it right ethically step-by-step guidance at each point in the research process, showing them diversity in approaches, the impact of context and how to overcome problems case studies of how real researchers embrace the challenges, surprises and successes of research an emphasis on the person in context, so their research is reflective of the realities of social work and social care practice a guide to writing it up and achieving impact and positive change with research.

Our textbook centers cultural humility, information literacy, pragmatism, and an equal emphasis on quantitative and qualitative methods. It includes extensive content on literature reviews, cultural bias and respectfulness, and qualitative methods, in contrast to traditionally used commercial textbooks in social work research. Our textbook exercises direct students to apply content as they are reading the book to an original research project. By breaking it down step-by-step, writing in approachable language, as well as using stories from our life, practice, and research experience, our textbook helps professors overcome students’ research methods anxiety and antipathy.

Experimental research is of great value to social work. Well-designed studies help social workers understand which approaches are most effective, with implications for both practice with individual clients and social policy more broadly. Many social work practitioners conduct studies that randomly assign clients to specific interventions and various control groups in order to assess policy outcomes. However, social work programs often do not teach experimental methods. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of experimental research in the field of social work. The author illustrates key principles through examples of how social workers have evaluated real-world practice approaches. The book considers recruitment and representation of marginalized groups, the ethical issues involved in the design and conduct of experiments, and how social work researchers can ensure that all participants in an experimental study benefit from effective care.

When social workers draw on experience, theory, or data in order to develop new strategies or enhance existing ones, they are conducting intervention research. This relatively new field involves program design, implementation, and evaluation and requires a theory-based, systematic approach. Intervention Research presents such a framework.The five-step strategy described in this brief but thorough book ushers the reader from an idea's germination through the process of writing a treatment manual, assessing program efficacy and effectiveness, and disseminating findings. Rich with examples drawn from child welfare, school-based prevention, medicine, and juvenile justice, Intervention Research relates each step of the process to current social work practice.

Expert contributors embrace key challenges--the complexities of health care delivery, disease management and prevention, rising costs, and changing population demographics--in shaping the push toward advancing more efficient and effective behavioral interventions and methodologies. The book addresses: ways to develop and advance an intervention, emerging hybrid trial designs - theories and new models for integrating behavioral interventions with implementation science - - recruitment and retention strategies for inclusion of diverse samples - research designs for different stages of intervention development - treatment fidelity models and measures - novel measurement and analytic strategies - cost analyses - selection of control groups - use of mixed methodology - ethics and informed consent - technology-based intervention approaches - professional considerations.