From Ethnography to Randomized Controlled Trial: An Innovative Approach to Developing Complex Social Interventions

Abstract

The evidence base for mental health social work is vastly under-developed in contrast to medicine and psychology. Without randomized controlled trial evidence of effectiveness, social work interventions are largely absent from UK clinical guidelines and are increasingly difficult to defend in multidisciplinary teams. This article will discuss an innovative and thorough approach to developing a social intervention which will be amenable to evaluation in a randomized controlled trial. Using ethnography to capture practice wisdom, underpinned by social capital theory with its own rich evidence base, the intervention will help people recovering from an episode of psychosis to connect, or reconnect, with other people. It is envisaged that by ensuring the intervention is grounded in the lived experience of workers and service users it will be more amenable to implementation in routine practice, and produce better outcomes.

Keywords:

• Ethnography
• social intervention
• connecting people
• social capital
• social networks
• mental health social work

Notes

This article presents independent research funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR School for Social Care Research or the Department of Health, NIHR, or NHS. The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the time given by the participants in this study and would like to thank their agencies for providing access to their expertise.