Clinical Practice Guidelines: Should Social Work Develop Them?

Abstract

Guidelines for clinical practice have proliferated in recent years. Numerous studies indicate that guidelines can increase empirically based practice and improve clients’ outcomes. Guidelines for social work practice would also promote more informed client decision making, improve clinical training in schools of social work, encourage more cost-effective and accountable practice, and help codify current knowledge in controversial practice areas. The National Association of Social Workers should institute a guidelines development program and ensure that guidelines reflect traditional social work values and the best in available scientific evidence and practice experience.

Teaching Evidence-Based Practice: Toward a New Paradigm for Social Work Education

“…To be regarded as evidence based, "knowledge must withstand the test of possible refutation by virtue of being subjected to scrutiny in the form of some rigorous reality check" (Cournoyer & Powers, in press). Given this definition, it is clear that well-conducted qualitative and quantitative studies can provide important information to practitioners, although the validity and utility of a given study's findings clearly varies as a function of many facets of study design and conduct (Howard & Jenson, 1999b).…”

Practice Guidelines: Rapprochement or Estrangement Between Social Work Practitioners and Researchers

“…At least two considerations concern us about this assumption. First, in our experience, practice guidelines regarding nonmedical interventions tend to lack specificity, falling far short of Howard and Jenson's (1999) assertion that a clinical guideline "reduces clinical uncertainty and otherwise assists social workers in their day-to-day activities" (p. 284). For example, the APA (1995) guidelines for treating persons with substance use disorders indicate that psychosocial treatments essential for a comprehensive treatment program include the following forms of treatment "cognitive behavioral therapies, behavioral therapies, psychodynamic/interpersonal therapies, group and family therapies, and participation in self-help groups" (p. 6).…”

Reconsidering critical appraisal in social work: choice, care and organization in real-time treatment decisions

“…This can be compared with the 'guideline model of EBP' (Bergmark, Bergmark, and Lundström 2012) in which the social worker has a less autonomous role in decision-making and relies on reviews and clinical practice guidelines produced by experts (cf. Howard and Jenson 1999;Guyatt et al 2000).…”