Session: Using Research Evidence to Improve Outcomes for Young People in the Child Welfare System (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

Over the past decade, research evidence has gained a prominent role in discussions organized around the “what-works-in-child-welfare” question.  The same is true in other human services sectors and rightly so.  Given the choice between using an efficacious practices and interventions and interventions that are benign and possible even iatrogenic, everyone is better served if the investment of scarce resources focuses on services that are aligned with evidence.

As reasonable as that sounds, using research evidence in practice is surprisingly difficult and all too rare.  The reasons why are now becoming increasingly well understood.  Organizational cultures, work routines, and system infrastructures make it difficult to adapt easily to the process, quality, and capacity requirements of evidence-based interventions.  If old habits die hard, dissemination and implementation of methods for research evidence use and employing evidence-based interventions in child welfare require more focused strategies.

In this symposium, we take a critical look at what it takes to bring research evidence into public child welfare systems. Each of the four presenters will focus on their work looking at research evidence use while drawing on common experiences and theoretical orientations.  The first paper examines the cultural exchange that takes place between EBI developers, trainers, organizations, and providers during the implementation of evidence-based interventions.  In this context, cultural exchange focuses on the interpersonal connections that drive the diffusion of innovation.  The second and third papers focus on the implementation of evidence-based interventions.  The first of these two papers examines at-scale implementation of an established evidence-based intervention.  At the behest of one city and one state child welfare agency, treatment developers were invited to introduce linked EBIs targeting caregiver skills.  Practical challenges include the effort required to train a large number of staff who have on-going case-carrying responsibilities.  The discussion highlights how active cultural exchange promotes the EBI uptake.  In the third paper, the flow of exchange is reversed.  Asked by the same city child welfare agency to develop a strategy for supporting caseworkers in their work with families, the treatment developers needed to adapt intervention principles to a new organizational priority.  Among other things, the paper discusses how the early initiative evolved into an a more complete NIH-funded research project.  The final paper steps back and looks broadly at the potential opportunities for improving the use of research evidence in child welfare systems.  Research evidence use is promoted because it is widely believed that greater access to and use of such evidence will improve outcomes.  In this paper data from a study that tested the assertion that research evidence use by agency staff yields better outcomes will be presented.  Finally, the discussant will connect the underlying themes by focusing on implementation and dissemination science and the role of research evidence in efforts to improve the quality of services provided to youth.