ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Accessing and Using Evidence in Social Work Practice

Jodi Sviontek
Wayne State University
SW 3810 Research Methods Data Analysis and Practice Evaluation SW 1,
Section (001) CRN# 27006
March 7th, 2013

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Accessing & Using Evidence in Social Work Practice: Evidence Based Intervention
Evidence based practice research is essential to cohesive, reliable, and efficient social
work practice. EBP enables social workers to effectively practice their competency by using
efficient and tested updated interventions for the best interest of the client. Using EBP not only
provides the best interventions to provide to clients based on reliable and sophisticated research,
but it also applies to decisions about how to best access the practice problems and decisions
practitioners make at other levels of practice, for example; decisions about social policies,
communities, and so on (Rubin & Babbie, 2013). Social workers need a basic understanding of
how EBP is conducted in order to advocate and assist their clients. If EDP is not practiced to its
full potential it can deem detrimental to the outcome of the clients intervention and well being
because they are not receiving an effective and reliable treatment and service centered planning.
Practice Related Research Question and Evidence
I have an interest in mental health and will like to work with the homeless population in
the field of social work. The question that I will like to answer is: What interventions reduce
recurring homelessness in people with severe mental illness? I asked this question in relevance to
finding out what kind of interventions will work to help prevent people with mental illness from
becoming homeless. Homelessness is a serious problem in the United States, if there is an
intervention that will help the mentally ill from becoming homeless, then over a period of time
the amount of homeless people who are mentally ill will decrease and the problem will lessen
and the individuals can live a better life.
After researching Wayne State Universitys library website and other internet evidence
based program databases, I visited the website for the Coalition for Evidence-based Policy

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

(CEBP) and found an array of evidence-based reputable published articles related to my

question. I searched the site and found a peer reviewed article, the site advocates the use of
evidence policy to show the effectiveness of evidence based practice programs and interventions.
The articles that are generated from the CEBP (Coalition for Evidence-based Policy) produces
scientific evidence proving the authentication of in depth and quality research.
Intervention for the Homeless with Severe Mental Illness
The intervention that was used in the article that I chose used utility of latent class growth
analysis (LCGA) to identify temporal patterns by reanalyzing information from a critical time
intervention (CTI) to show differences between intervention and control groups that have been
designed to prevent recurrent homelessness among men with mental disorders. Mental illness for
this population ranges from various conditions like schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
It is difficult for people with these kinds of mental illnesses to keep steady employment thus
becoming homeless (Gregoire, 2000).
The intervention used LCGA and captures effects over time; it reanalyzes CTI for
homeless mentally ill men. Researchers have worked together and carried the analysis further by
critically demonstrating how LCGA can identify different, latent, temporal patterns amongst
people from the intervention. The activities and theory of the program relates to the problem of
the homeless with severe mental illness because by the study uses a shelters psychiatric program
by observing individuals using experimental and control groups, while using CTI and the usual
services; the individuals housing circumstances measures homelessness over an 18 month time
period, among mentally ill men.

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

The intervention I identified addresses my practice question because it deeply identifies the
problem of recurring homelessness with people who have mental illness, though the study is just
based on men the factors of gender is not touched upon but the article; it still provides
information of the mentally ill population by using the study and suggesting that LCGA
improves intervention evaluation amongst this population.
The Effectiveness of the Intervention
The research tells me that the effectiveness of the intervention by studying an examined
strategy to prevent homelessness among individuals with severe mental illness, it provides a
bridge between institutional and community care. The methods that were used was Ninety-six
men with severe mental illness who were entering community housing from a shelter institution;
they were randomized to receive 9 months of a "critical time" intervention plus usual services or
usual services only. The primary analysis compared the mean number of homeless nights for the
two groups during the 18-month follow-up period. To show time trends, survival curves were
used. The results indicated the 18-month follow-up period; the average number of homeless
nights was 30 for the critical time intervention group and 91 for the usual services group.
Survival curves showed that after the 9-month period of active intervention, the difference
between the two groups did diminish. The conclusion shows that the strategies that focus on a
critical time of transition may contribute to the prevention of recurrent homelessness among
individuals with mental illness, even after the period of active intervention.
Validity of the Research
I know that the research is valid because the study was published in the American Journal
of Public Health (AJPH). Similar studies by the researchers using LCGA and CTI would be

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

published in the journals, all peer reviewed. The studies have an array of reliable and reputable
sources. The research was approved by the Columbia University Medical Center Institutional
review board.
Feasibility of the Intervention
The intervention is compatible with the clients cultural context because the population
was selected specifically for the intervention based upon mental illness and homelessness; the
intervention randomly chose 96 men leaving a shelters psychiatric program. The resources that
are required to implement the intervention as designed because of the research conducted and the
population already assembled. The resources to implement the evidence-based intervention in the
same manner described in the article were provided upon the study and conducted accordingly to
procedure and effectiveness. What I like most about the intervention is that it provides particular
services when mentally ill homeless people are transitioning from shelters to housing in the
community. For the experimental group the intervention consisted of helping to strengthen the
individuals ties to the services, family, and friends, while providing the people with additional
support while leaving the facility. Each individual was provided a worker to help them through
the process based on their specific needs. I also liked the availability of the intervention, which
what I mean by that is, the services were provided to the men to effective monitor the results and
to help keep the men from revolving back in to homelessness. Also, the intervention, though men
was the focus of the sample study, there was no consideration based on differing cultural
backgrounds.

The collection of different professions means information is shared among staff

so that everyone is updated and informed about any changes regarding the individuals.

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Conclusion
In my opinion there are many advantages of using the evidence based process in social
work practice in general because social workers are required to have vast amount of skills and
extended knowledge regarding helping their clients and providing the best effective treatments
for them that are based on science and experiments. This includes using evidence based practice
in their studies and to perform concessive research and performance. I really do not see any
disadvantages because without EBP we cannot derive social work studies to the effective most
competent level of study. Using LCGA in a CTI it captures important information that provides
helpful results in Intervention.

ACCESSING AND USING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

References
Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy.
Gregoire, A. (2000). Adult severe mental illness. Greenwich Medical Media.
Lennon, Mary Clare, William McAllister, Li Kuang, and Daniel B. Herman. Capturing
Intervention Effects Over Time: Reanalysis of a Critical Time Intervention for Homeless
Mentally Ill Men. American Journal of Public Health, October 2005, vol. 95, no. 10, pp.
1760-1766.
Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. (2013). Essential Research Methods for Social Work.
(3rd ed.).Belmont,CA: Cengage Learning.