This article explores the application of the genogram in educational psychology (EP) practice. It provides a brief overview of the historical and theoretical development of the genogram. It then reviews and critiques some of the current literature regarding clinical application of the genogram in casework with children and adolescents and their…

Objective: This article brings the discussions on incorporating perceived importance across study areas into the study of client satisfaction and cautions the use of multiplicative scores (multiplying satisfaction and importance scores) as a weighting method. An alternative weighting method is provided. Method: Analyze data from a client…

Evidence-based assessment in intimate partner violence (IPV) is critical to the accurate understanding of risk and to the development of interventions that increase safety. In this study standardized clients (actors) were used to train Army civilian social workers in evidence-based assessment of IPV and in the evaluation of the curriculum's…

Reliable and valid methods to evaluate student competence are needed in social work education, and practice examinations with standardized clients may hold promise for social work. The authors conducted a critical appraisal of standardized client simulations used in social work education to assess their effectiveness for teaching and for…

Evidence-based research relevant to social work practice has grown dramatically. This article describes a method that was implemented to teach master's and doctoral social work students how to synthesize and evaluate evidence-based interventions for social work-related problems and populations. The method includes eight steps: conceptualize the…

This article reviews the use of several valuation methods as they relate to drug abuse and places them within the context of U.S. policy. First, cost-of-illness (COI) studies are reviewed and their limitations discussed. Second, three additional economic methods of valuing drug abuse are reviewed, including cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA),…

This article describes an initiative to evaluate the impact of educational psychologists' (EPs') casework. Previous studies have often focussed on evaluating processes or reducing outcomes to measurable units. The authors argue that qualitative research methods can be used to illuminate EP effectiveness. They describe a real world and…

With the growing emphasis on accountability and evidence-based practice, evaluation has become increasingly important in the contexts in which educational psychologists (EPs) practice. This paper describes a Target Monitoring and Evaluation (TME) system, derived from Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) which was developed to evaluate outcomes of a wide…

This article describes an effectiveness evaluation of an intensive case management intervention coordinated by a non-profit organization in a midsize Midwest City. As an effectiveness evaluation, the primary evaluation question was causal in nature; the key task of the evaluative study was to establish and probe connections between the…

Two current trends in evaluation practice are brought together: the growth of case study in policy evaluation and the redefinition of the case boundaries to include administrative actors. One facet of their interaction is explored; that is, the confrontation that can occur when a case worker alone comes into conflict with the organization studied.…

The lack of a firmly established pattern for managing cases in social services seems to be widespread. This creates a need for a unified and standardized procedure at the individual case level of service delivery. This manual represents a basic variation of the general case management model. It is meant to be used as a rationale and motivation for…

A multifaceted outcome design was used to investigate the results of brief, system-oriented family therapy. Describes the methods used and provides an overview of clients' status on a variety of outcome measures. Results indicate that the majority of families did well on most of the measures considered. (Author)

Increasingly, social workers are being called on to conduct spiritual assessments, yet few assessment methods have appeared in academic literature. This article reviews five complementary assessment approaches that have recently been developed to highlight different facets of clients' spiritual lives. Specifically, one verbal model, spiritual…

Describes how social workers in a family agency were trained to apply single-case evaluation procedures. The staff's assessment points to four factors that influence practice evaluation: (1) perceived relevance to job responsibilities, (2) utility for immediate action of decision makers, (3) involvement of practitioners, and (4) organizational…

Presents a model training protocol for case management of child sexual abuse cases and a training protocol for the development of case planning skills. Findings from an evaluation of case management skills suggest that child protective service workers need training in formulating goals and objectives and negotiating contracts with sexually abusive…