Transcript Evidence based practice

Social Work Education: International and local
Perspective
Erasmus Mundus Programme – University of Turku,
Finland
Shorena Sadzaglishvili, PhD, MSW
Ilia State University
Head of Master and Doctoral Programs in Social Work
[email protected]
16.10.2015
PLAN
• Social Work as a Science
• Social work as a Professional Practice
• Social Work as a Global Profession
Is Social Work a Science?
Brekke 2012, 2013;
Sommerfeld, 2014; Marsh,
2012; Anastas, 2014; Shaw,
2014; Longhofer and
Floersch, 2012.
•
•
•
Social work education has historically been grounded in professional practice;
Social work has no unique subject matter or methodology;
This profession is made up largely of master’s level practitioners who as a
group do not have the research sophistication that is found among doctoral
graduates from other fields;
• Social workers have not contributed towards the scientific advances and
evidence based treatments relevant to social work as much as other
professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists;
e.g. The total number of social work journals and the impact factors of these
journals indicate that social work’s contribution to the expanding social science
knowledge based has relatively restricted.
• Social work textbooks and journals exemplify the “piggyback” approach to
social work that is to embrace knowledge from any discipline relevant to
profession that interferes with defining itself as a social science;
• Social work as a science is missing from social work’s mission statements,
codes of ethics and accreditation documents.
Compare:
•
American Psychological Association, the "APA
seeks to advance psychology as a science, a
profession, and as a means of promoting health,
education, and human welfare.“
•
National Association of Social Workers:
Promote, develop, and protect the practice of
social work and social workers; and Seek to
enhance the effective functioning and well-being of
individuals, families, and communities through its
work and through its advocacy.
Whitaker, Weissmuller & Clark, 2006
US National Study of Licensed Social Workers
There is a little evidence that practitioners see
themselves as scientific
42%
58 % self reported
doing some research
58%
The employment statistics shows a significant presence of social workers in health and
human service jobs, whereas social work researchers account for less than 1% of all
researchers actively involved in federally funded projects (Bureau of Labor Statistics,
2012)- Anastas, 2014
Gap between Science and Practice
•
•
•
•
•
Several national reports of the US indicated that there is a 20-year gap
between knowledge generated from the best clinical research and the
utilization of that knowledge in health and mental health sectors (Brekke,
Ell and Palinkas, 2007).
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) The goal of EBP is the integration of: (a)
clinical expertise/expert opinion, (b) external scientific evidence, and (c)
client/patient/caregiver perspectives to provide high-quality services
reflecting the interests, values, needs, and choices of the individuals we
serve.
The association of evidence-based practice with a scientific paradigm can
produce tension for social workers who recognize the importance of
reflective, interpretive and humanist responses to the personal and social
conditions encountered in practice (Plath, 2006).
The notion of contradiction between evidence based practice and critical
reflective practice in social work (Payne, 2002)
It is associated with much older discussions related to the relationship
between science and art in social work (Boehm, 1960).
Evidence based practice or Critical
Reflective practice? Science or Art?
• The capacity to reflect on action
• To engage in a process of continuous learning.
• To pay critical attention to the practical values
and theories which inform everyday actions.
Kolb's Experiential Learnning Cycle
Top-down"
” OR ” Bottom up” Approach
EBP provides Science informed
practice: Scientific
Practitioner? (Rosen, 1996)
Development and Implementation of evidence based or evidence supported
practice interventions e.g. problem solving therapy, ACT, etc.
The development of social work science may cause a non-rational fear among social
workers that social work “by becoming scientific” can lose its “heart” (Boehm, 1960).
Social work is An
Applied Science:
• Interdisciplinary (several disciplines working
jointly from their discipline-specific bases to
integrate, combine, or synthesize perspectives,
concepts, and/or theories to address a common
problem) and
• Transdisciplinary (a collaboration between several
academic disciplines and practitioners in
professional fields outside academe to address a
complex real-world problem) research.
• Integrating multidisciplinary knowledge in a
transdisciplinary way.
•
•
•
Social work as an integrative discipline provides new applications of
existing theories (from social sciences and humanities) to problems in
life and develops new social work integrative theories, “indigenous
knowledges” (IFSW) and models and guides in solving critical social
work problems.
“Action Science” – Sommerfeld (2014). This approach of action science
goes beyond evidence-based practice. It does not evolve from adding
and meta-analyzing empirical data rather than it composes specific
theories of action so called “technological knowledge” comprising of
multidisciplinary knowledge (Sommerfeld, 2014).
Treatment/Intervention Research Scientific Explanation how treatment
affects the causal factors. ´How treatment works? Effectiveness
“Translational Science” (Fong, 2012). Translational science takes both
research informing practice competency and the practice informing
research competency and operationalizes them to tie the researcher
and the practitioner more closely together. The goal of translational
science is to support research that will build the models and methods
needed to bridge the science and service communities, and thereby
directly affect the provision of services in all of these usual care
settings across sectors and populations.
Community Based Participatory Research /
Critical Action Research or Intervention
Research
• Research informing practice competency
• Practice informing research competency
Science,
Research,
University
Service
Community,
Practice
Critical Action Research: This research-asactivism process leads to social change
• The study of marginalized, oppressed, disenfranchised, or
disadvantaged populations—with the aim to promote social justice
among these populations.
• Critical action researchers do this by questioning the social
implications and moral issues of action and by seeking shared
understanding of the social action.
• Critical action research takes the concept of knowledge-as-power,
and equalizes the generation of, access to, and use of that
knowledge.
• An ethical choice that gives voice to, and shares power with,
previously marginalized and muted people.
• Action research is change oriented and accomplishes this by
involving the people under study as co-researchers, thereby
providing them with the tools to effect change themselves.
• The stakeholders (including research subjects or
participants) of the research work with the researchers
to define the problem and set the research agenda,
find new ways of seeing the situation, and work toward
solutions.
• The process empowers both the researchers and the
research participants because the research effort
allows discovery and exploration of power differentials
in the research relationship as well as in the
community under study.
• Critical action research follows a collaborative cycle
between participants and researchers of reflecting,
planning, acting, observing, reflecting, replanning, and
so on. Recognizing and articulating a social problem.
Elizabeth DePoy and colleagues in 1999 suggested a model of critical
action research that includes the following:
• Convening a steering committee from among all stakeholder groups
• Identifying the scope of the research and the type of social change
desired
• Selecting a collaborative research team
• Training lay researchers on the research team in research methods
• Designing the study, including research questions and methods
• Conducting the study and analysis
• Reporting the findings in accessible formats to all stakeholder
groups
• Acting on the findings by planning and following through with social
change
• Identifying a steering committee for follow-up inquiry
The Markers of a Social
Work Research
• It is consistent with social work’s core constructs,
professional purpose and ethical code
• Systematic approach - contextual factors having
critical role in realization of individual’s full
potential (biopsychosocial and person-inenvironment)
• It explicitly promotes social change and the social
justice (empowerment, inclusion, reducing
disease and increasing health) (Payne, 2006 )
Institutional Response to Development of
Science of Social Work – Building Social Work
Knowledge for Effective Services and Policies
• AASWSW - The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare,
2009 Grand Challenge
• CSWE – Council of Social Work Education
• GADE - the Group of Advancement of Doctoral Education in social work
(1970)
• ANSWER - Action Network for Social Work Education and Research
• SSWR - the Society for Social Work and Research
• IFSW, IASSW
• NASW etc.
• Swiss Society of Social Work SSSW – (2006) the delegates of the Swiss
Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences unanimously elected the
SSSW a new member of the Academy after having thoroughly evaluated
the scientific performance of Swiss Social Work Science over the last 10
years . (2013)
Grand Challenges Initiative
Raising vital scientific questions ?
•
•
Grand Challenges were announced on January 17, 2015 in New Orleans at the
annual Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) Conference
http://aaswsw.org/grand-challenges-initiative/
The Grand Challenges share a commitment to a strong scientific base; building on
strengths of individuals, families, and communities;
•
Grand Challenges will accelerate social innovations to address vexing problems in
our society.
•
To generate innovative scientific solutions, but also engage in policy development
and other socio-political approaches to change.
•
One of the aspirations of the Grand Challenges is to build a more cohesive society
that fights exclusion and marginalization, creates a sense of belonging, promotes
trust, and offers pathways for social and economic mobility for everyone.
Steps toward Social work as a Science:
Georgia
• To strengthen social work doctoral education, to prepare high
impact researchers, high quality social science research in line
with academic standards;
• Acknowledgement of social work scientists within national
academy of science;
• To develop intellectual scientific community at the University
that will be able to undertake interdisciplinary and trans
disciplinary research (Research Centers), to enhance academic
environment (research culture) enabling successful
collaborations between qualified scholars;
• Advocacy: social work research can be utilized in different
sectors, to facilitate informed decision-making processes and
bolster the country’s development. To encourage greater
interaction between Georgian academic researchers, civil
society/community members, and government policy makers;
• State Funding Institutions: Building social work knowledge for
effective services and policies (e.g. NIMH, NIH, ASWR –
Institute for Advancement of Social Work Research and etc.).
Social Work Professional Practice
• Implementation of Continuing Education
Practices;
• Professional Doctorate; DSW
• Agency based research / Academy (Science,
Universitiy) and Practice (Agency) Collaboration;
• Implementation of Translational science – to
bridge the science and service communities: (1)
to speed the use of promising and evidence
based practices (2) to train service researchers to
develop and participate in interdisciplinary
investigative teams;
• Include researchers in academic teaching process
Social Work as Global Profession
• Global social work should have its broader super
national concerns and content – global issues are
answered from the global perspective, but within the
ecological contexts of each country.
• Cross national comparative social work and policy
research. Methodological innovations and not simple
comparison between social welfare systems.
• International social work experts – who possess a
unique body of knowledge and skills that can positively
effect the national and international social situation,
especially in helping to find sustainable solutions to
recurrent local, state, national and international social
problems.