Evidence-Based Social Work: An Overview

After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to: • Understand the philosophical foundations undergirding the approach called evidence-based practice. • Be able to articulate the major steps involved in the process of conducting evidence-based practice. • Be able to describe the strengths and limitations of a scien-tific orientation to social work practice. • Be able to locate valid sources of information regarding the effectiveness of various psychosocial interventions and meth-ods of assessment suitable for applications to social work. Overview of the Problem The focus of this book is empirical research that has direct ap-plications to social work practice and informs evidence-based practice. It is always useful to begin by defining one’s terms, and in turning to the Social Work Dictionary (Barker, 2003, p. 141), we find that the word empirical means “based on direct observa-tion or experience ” and that empirically based practice is defined as: A type of intervention in which the professional social worker uses research as a practice and problem-solving tool; collects dat