Evidence- and Strength based Practice in social work with children and families

Maria LehtinenEeva VehviläinenUniversity of Jyväskylä

In this presentation we are going to…

Introduce you Evidence-Based Practice and Strength Based PracticeCompare these models and to

find the essential difference between them

Tell you how to apply these models in social work with children and families

Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is a model that is used by professionals of social work“Evidence-Based Social care is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions regarding the welfare of those in needs.” (Korteniemi & Borg, 2008)EBP refers to the use of research and scientific studies as a base for determining the best practices in a field

Strength Based PracticeA structural way of doing social work.It´s all about focusing on client´s strengths and resources instead of problemsThe method is closely related to the concept of empowerment

There are many opinions about method´s effectiveness and usefulness in social work.

The differences between the models

EBP reinforces the occupation as a profession; it strengthens the expertiseSBP is a client orientated and more practical way of doing social workEBP is more like making the work visible SBP is a structural way of working: a social worker uses strength based questions in aim to empower the client

It can be argued that EBP is an organization centered and SBP is a client centered approach

How these models work in practice?

SBP: while doing the intervention, social worker challenges the family to work on the family´s situation asking all family members empowering questions

The family members set their own goals

EBP can be used as a tool of evaluating the effectiveness of different methods

for example the SBP method

Conclusionso EBP doesn´t really work in the practice with children

and families because of it´s administrative character

(eg. works better with substance misusers)o The SBP method would be very executable in

Finnish social work but it´s not yet widely used hereo Using strength based practice in social work with

families and children would have a positive impact on families´ situations and to the client-worker relationship (Rapp, Saleeby & Sullivan 2005 )

Conclusions (SBP)Nevertheless, there seems to be very little evidence of strength´s based method´s effectiveness

in my research I investigated the method´s usefulness and effectiveness from a social worker´s point of view

Conclusions (EBP)EBP could be used in an evaluating of social work process´ effectivenessIt could be a tool of developing different methods in the work with families and children.The client should be included to the process

this would increase customers feeling of effecting his/her own situation eg. the changes in clients resources more visible

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