Integrating Research and Practice: A Collaborative Model for Addressing Trauma and Addiction

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a 2 phase project developed by a group of practitioners and researchers to identify which trauma screening instrument clinicians find most useful in addiction treatment settings, provide clinicians with the resources necessary to conduct trauma screenings, and promote collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The data on clinicians’ views on trauma screening and on 3 trauma measures were gathered in 2 focus groups of 8–9 clinicians who volunteered to participate. The 2 measures that the clinicians preferred were pilot tested in 5 agencies. The findings suggest that clinicians have a preference for the Violence and Trauma Screening Questionnaire (District of Columbia Trauma Collaboration Study, 1999). The collaborative process between researchers and practitioners appears to be beneficial.

Keywords:

• screen
• trauma
• substance abuse
• research-to-practice

This study was funded by the New York State Practice Improvement Collaborative. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions that the members of the Western New York Practice Research Network made to this project.

Notes

Note: Numbers in parentheses are standard deviations. t-tests all on 46 df.

*p ≤ .05.

This paper was presented at the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, March 1, 2004, Anaheim, California.