Intervention with Adults

Volume 3. Social Work Practice
II. Assessment and Intervention with Specific Populations
Bruce A. Thyer

Bruce A. Thyer

Florida State University, College of Social Work, Tallahassee, Florida, US

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Abstract

During the past two decades, there have been a number of significant developments relating to the evaluation of the evidentiary foundations of psychosocial interventions. Within psychology, efforts were made to establish research standards to be used to designate whether or not a given treatment could be considered to be empirically supported, and lists of such treatments have been published, along with many related treatment manuals and practice guidelines. The Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations have devised a rigorous methodology to appraise the research literature about the usefulness of various assessment methods and interventions, and a large and growing number of such systematic reviews are available to provide guidance to social workers. Much of this information is in the public domain and readily accessible via the Internet. This chapter describes these developments and lists representative examples of empirically-supported treatments and systematic reviews related to social work interventions with adults. Some possible implications of this newly available knowledge for social work practitioners, students, faculty, and organizations are discussed.

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