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SWOK 587: Evidence-Based Practice

A guide to the social work resources available at Heritage University

Introduction

Evidence-Based Social Work YouTube Video (14 minutes)
University of Southern California. "...School of Social Work professor Dorian Traube discusses Evidenced-Based Practice in the field of Social Work" 

Guidelines

ECRI Guidelines Trust
"...repository of objective, evidence-based clinical practice guideline content... This centralized repository includes evidence-based guidance developed by nationally- and internationally-recognized medical organizations and medical specialty societies." 

Handbook

Creative Commons License
Brown School EBP handbook by George Warren Brown School of Social Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact the Library Director, (314) 935-8644

EBP--Healthcare

Health Evidence
 "Search our database of 8,295 quality-rated reviews on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions, including cost data."

TRIP Database 
Turning Research Into Practice. "Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care."

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Published Recommendations
"...reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services." 

The Community Guide

Resource for evidence based public health interventions produced by the The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) with the support of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

EBP--Social Work

EPPI Centre

Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating (EPPI) Centre is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London. Offers resources related to health, education, and welfare.

Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

“The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), through its EPCs, sponsors the development of various reports to assist public- and private-sector organizations in their efforts to improve the quality of healthcare in the United States. These reports provide comprehensive, science-based information on common, costly medical conditions and new healthcare technologies and strategies.”

Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention

From the Child Welfare Information Gateway. Selected programs.

Evidence-Based Behavioral Practice

Information about evidence-based practice related to the behavioral sciences.

Directory
Evidence-Based Practice (University of Washington)

An Evidence-based practice research guide produced by the University of Washington Health Sciences Library. 

Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center: SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
SAMHSA is committed to improving prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for mental and substance use disorders.

The Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center provides communities, clinicians, policy-makers and others with the information and tools to incorporate evidence-based practices into their communities or clinical settings.

Center for Social Development Publications by Category
The Center for Social Development's mission is to create and study innovations in policy and practices that enable individuals, families and communities to formulate and achieve life goals, and contribute to the economy and society. 

Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network (SIREN)

"... growing interest in interventions attending to patients’ social determinants of health (SDH) in health care delivery, including both activities that mitigate the impacts of SDH on health care delivery and those that aim to change patients' SDH. Stronger evidence of effectiveness of interventions, complemented by convincing implementation and dissemination research, is needed to inform decision-making and secure health care sector funding for these activities. 

Open Access

Evidence-based Practice Resources: Open Access
"Selected open access evidence-based practice resources for a variety of areas of social work practice."

Directories

Child Trends What Works Database
Child Trends’ What Works is a searchable register of over 700 programs that have had at least one randomized evaluation to assess child or youth outcomes related to education, life skills, and social/emotional, mental, physical, behavioral, or reproductive health.

ACRL Social Work Liaison Toolkit

From the EBSS Social Work Committee. Has general resources (Ref, Organizations, Databases), Statistics, Data Sets, Open Access, Tests & Measures, Policy, Selecting in Social Work, and Evidence Synthesis and Advanced Reviews. 

 

Community Planning for Health Assessment: Index

“The information and guidance on these pages can help state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments as they develop community health assessments and health improvement plans, whether for accreditation preparation, nonprofit hospital collaboration, or other reasons.”

Evidence-Based Practice for the Helping Professions

Provides the definition of evidence-based practice along with guidance in formulating the question and advice on searching appropriate databases.

Community Tool Box: Toolkits

"...resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change. It offers thousands of pages of tips and tools for taking action in communities." 

Dissemination & Implementation Models in Health: An Interactive Webtool to Help You Use D&I Models

"... help researchers and practitioners navigate D&I theories, models, and frameworks (TMFs) through planning, selecting, combining, adapting, using, and linking to measures."

What Works in Social Policy?

Programs with credible evidence from well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of important effects on people’s lives

 

NASW Evidence-Based Practices Resources
Social workers increasingly are seeking information about evidence-based practices. Numerous resources are emerging to help connect research to practice and provide information that can be helpful to practitioners. Since the term evidence-based practice (EBP) is used in numerous ways, definitions will be provided that can help expand social workers understanding of EBP. resources, and publications will be identified that can be useful to inform practice and guide policymakers.