Social Work 635 Fall 2021 Assignment 2: Evidence Informed Practice Decision Making and Evaluation (35% of Course Grade) Due the week of Unit 11 Building upon the first assignment, students will develop an evidence-based plan for intervention with the client identified in Assignment 1, including a plan for evaluation. The second assignment aims to demonstrate students ability to: 1) locate and appraise the available evidence regarding Evidence Based-Interventions (EBIs) and Evidence-Based Assessment (EBA) tools, selecting the best ones – using an Evidence-Based Practice decisionmaking approach – for use in a particular practice situation; and 2) develop plans for evaluation of change efforts in professional practice. To this end, students will develop a practice-focused paper in which they address a specific client situation, locating, appraising, and selecting the best EBI and EBA tool for use, subsequently creating a plan for evaluating their practice effectiveness. It will be necessary to do multiple literature searches to identify the necessary and appropriate scholarly evidence for this assignment. Following is a summary of the required elements of the paper. Please follow the bolded headings and subheadings as an outline. Client Background and Problem Formulation: Provide a brief summary of your client and important background information. (You are welcome to draw from your first assignment for this). Discuss your formulation of the clients problem(s) for which you will provide intervention. [What does your assessment and diagnostic impression tell you about how to conceptualize the problem?] Integrate two references from relevant scholarly literature to support your formulation. (approximately 1/2-1 page) Selected Evidence-Based Intervention: Flowing from your problem formulation, conduct a search to identify the suitable interventions with demonstrated effectiveness in addressing the problem or diagnosis for which your client seeks change. After considering and discussing the important factors from each of the dimensions involved in evidence-based practice decisionmaking, you will ultimately select the intervention you believe is the best one for use with your client (or population). Provide a summary of the intervention and a brief critical appraisal of the literature examining its efficacy and effectiveness. The requested details and suggested outline follow. Be sure to include appropriate citations. (approximately 3-4 pages) (NOTE: The evidence search should aim for interventions that ideally have multiple experimental or at least quasi-experimental studies reporting some level of effectiveness. True documentation that an intervention is evidence-based occurs only when there is outcome data from a body of evaluative studies, indicating a positive change in the target behavior. Also, please bear in mind that this section of the paper should address what is known about the intervention, as based on the body of available evidence supporting its effectiveness. It is not intended to be a summary of a single evaluative study.) EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Best Available Evidence – Discuss the major findings, overall strength/rigor and extent of the body of empirical evidence examining interventions for the identified problem; the outcomes for which the interventions have been demonstrated effective; the populations and settings examined; and intervention limitations. EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Client Characteristics – Discuss the meaningful client-related factors you have identified as meaningful to your intervention decisionmaking, including dimensions of diversity, values, and preferences. EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Resources/Practitioner – Discuss the meaningful practitioner and other resource-related considerations you have identified as meaningful to your selection of an intervention. EBP Decisionmaking: Other Considerations – Describe any other considerations with implications for your decisionmaking, including specific agency- and/or broader environmental factors. Brief Intervention Summary Identify the intervention you believe is the best one to use with your client and provide a brief overview of it, including its name, key elements, and a brief summary of intervention delivery, including the critical components that are essential for fidelity. Please briefly explain your rationale for selecting this intervention, as well as appraising your level of confidence that it is likely to be effective. Plan for Evaluation of Intervention Outcomes: The final portion of the paper involves development of a specific practice evaluation plan wherein students will be able to assess the presence and extent of change that may be occurring, and to use the findings for ongoing practice decisionmaking. Following is a list of requested elements to be addressed. (approximately 3-4 pages, including diagram) Outcome Objectives – Clearly state two specific outcome objectives for your work with your client. Objectives should be specified in measurable terms and consistent with your problem formulation and chosen intervention. (Ideally, this would be mutually identified, flowing from your agreed-upon treatment/care plan.) The objectives should follow SMART format or otherwise address the following dimensions: Direction (Do you want the measurement values to go up or down?), Level (At what level do you consider the objective to successful?), Duration (How long does the improvement need to be maintained to be considered successful?), and Time to completion (How long do you expect achieving the objective to take?) Evidence Based Assessment/Measurement Tool For one of the outcome objectives, conduct a search of empirical evidence for an evidence-based assessment/measurement tools that would provide for evaluation of change in the target outcome over time. Select the tool that you believe is the best one for measuring change in this situation, based on consideration of the best available empirical evidence, along with client and contextual factors. The following details about the measure should be provided: measurement name and brief summary (# of items, purpose, etc.); established forms of reliability and validity; materials and administration method/steps; scoring and interpretation guidelines; and your rationale for selection of this measure, including an appraisal of the quality and applicability of the tool for use with your selected client in this particular practice situation, along with other factors considered in your decisionmaking. Be sure to include appropriate citations. NOTE: Where feasible, please attach a copy of the selected tool as an appendix when submitting this assignment. It will not be included in the page count. Evaluation Design and Plan for Data Collection – Briefly describe the type of single system design you would expect to use, along with an explanation for why the design would be most appropriate. Provide the key details of your plan for collecting and tracking outcomes data. Depiction and Interpretation of Data Though actual data collection is not requested, please provide a graph of the way you envision your clients data might look in the case of successful intervention, using mock data. Assignment Guidelines The assignment should not exceed 8 double-spaced pages in total, formatted as an APA style paper. Please use headings and subheadings to organize your paper, providing in-text citations and a reference list. The evaluation of the assignment will be based on whether you addressed all aspects of the assignment, as well as the quality, clarity and completeness of your written work (graduate level writing, organization, flow, depth, mechanics of writing such as grammar, spelling, etc.). Proofread your work and abide by the academic integrity guidelines. It is expected that students will be responsible for submitting their own work and not the work of other students. If you study with other students, be conscious of shaping and writing your own paper. Please note: Turnitin automatically scans all papers upon submission to the platform. Students found to be in violation of the academic integrity guidelines may be referred for judicial review. An overview of the Universitys guidelines on academic integrity can be found at the following URL: Submit the assignment on time. VAC students are requested to upload their assignment to the platform. On-ground instructors will decide upon the format of the submission: in-class, via Blackboard or emailed. The assignment will be penalized 4 points for each day it is late. PLEASE READ THE ABOVE instructions CAREFULLY. THIS IS THE POWERPOINT PART OF THE ESSAY BELOW PLEASE READ AND follow instructions CAREFULLY THANK YOU. Social Work 635 Fall 2021 Assignment 3: Evidence-Based Practice Project Summary Presentation (20% of Course Grade) Due the week of Unit 13, 14, or 15 (Schedule To Be Determined) As practitioners, social work students are faced with addressing and adapting their practice to the changing population profile, as it relates to the overall health and well-being of populations ranging throughout adulthood. During the course of the semester, students have been gaining the knowledge and skills to draw upon, assess, and integrate diverse sources of research knowledge to inform understanding of their client-focused evidence based practice problem and their related practice decisionmaking. Building upon the two class assignments, students will prepare and deliver an Evidence-Based Practice Project Summary Presentation. The presentation will succinctly, and in an applied, practitioner-friendly manner, provide an overview of the research evidence regarding the practice based question and EBI targeting the proposed population. The goal is to enable social work students to learn the process of how to provide timely knowledge translation of research evidence to clinicians, clients and other stakeholders to inform practice decisions with diverse adult clientele in health and mental health settings. The EBP Project Summary Presentation should consist of six components, along with a list of references: 1. Background of Client and Practice Problem In this section, you will briefly introduce the audience to the nature and extent of the problem. This includes a very brief client scenario and the rationale/significance of the identified problem. You are encouraged to utilize evidence you have identified or examined independently as well as those discussed in class to establish the importance of the problem. 2. Guiding Evidence-Based Practice Question Here, simply restate your practice question that was identified in Assignment 1. 3. Key Findings from Body of Empirical Knowledge In this section, you will present an overview of the key findings from your review of relevant scholarly literature and best available practice evidence on the topic. This section is aimed at demonstrating your skills and ability to systematically assess and critically evaluate evidence from published empirical research. Keep in mind that you need to translate these key messages in a language that is easily understandable to your target audience (., jargon-free). You are expected to synthesize this evidence using no fewer than 5-peer reviewed scholarly publications. [Note: Utilize the skills and information you developed in preparing your Assignment 1.] 4. Clinical Practice: Evidence Based Intervention In this section, you will use, expand and refine the narrative and information included in the Evidence Based Intervention portion of Assignment 2. Some students may have discovered a lack of evidence-based interventions related to their topic. If applicable, you can use this section to describe a promising intervention. Please make sure you cite relevant sources. 5. Plan for Practice Evaluation In this section, you will provide a brief overview of your plan for evaluating your practice with your selected client. Please identify, in particular, the identified outcome objectives and the selected measurement tool, including your assessment of the scientific strength/rigor of the tool and your rationale for selecting it. 6. Research-to-Practice: Clinical Implications, Limitations and Recommendations In this section, you will identify some of the most important implications of what you have learned from your review and appraisal of the respective bodies of evidence. This should be an opportunity for you to discuss what you have learned about the identified problem, suitable interventions, and approaches to measurement and practice evaluation during the course of the semester and how the existing evidence, EBIs, and assessments can contribute to enhancing your practice with a particular client. Moreover, you should address the limitations that exist with existing evidence and EBIs that can compromise the effectiveness of current practice (., limitations on diversity of populations, cultural competency, methodology, etc.). Finally, offer some recommendations to your peer practitioners based on all of the gathered evidence that can contribute to their evidence-informed practice with similar individuals who have similar needs. [In building your presentation content, remember that you are now the class expert in your specific area of focus. The presentations are necessarily brief, so you will have to be selective about what you can address. What are the most important pieces of information to relay to fellow practitioners who may need to provide services for your selected issue/population/setting, but who havent had the opportunity to delve into the body of evidence in the way that you have?]
