Re-Thinking Child Welfare Training Models to Achieve Evidence-Based Practices

Abstract

The concept of evidence-based practice (EBP) has gained increasing attention during the past 15 years. Despite both increased awareness of what evidence-based practice is and on its value in human services, few approaches with proven efficacy have actually transferred into the clinical, or real-world setting.

A number of factors have surfaced as barriers to transfer of efficacious practice. In particular, the research indicates that the organizational context in which a practice is delivered has a significant impact on the fidelity of the treatment, and on its success or failure. Organizational context refers to factors that differ from the research environment, including a host of confounding variables (motivation, skills, caseloads, supervision and support); readiness to change, and the organizational culture.

This article presents an overview of selected barriers to transfer and proposes that competency-based training programs must make a dramatic change in their approach to training if training is ever going to truly lead to positive outcomes in the lives of children.

Transfer of Technology is the integration of a practice and/or practice principles into the day-to-day interactions between workers and clients that lead to positive and sustained change among the client population. It is broader than the concept of transfer of learning in that the process engages the entire organization and not simply an individual worker. Full transfer of technology accounts for the subjective nature of knowledge and allows the user to make the practice “their own” with colloquial adaptations.

Key Words:

• Evidence-based practice
• transfer of technology
• transfer of learning
• competency-based training