Federal, state, and local policymakers and funders have increasingly organized human service delivery functions around the selection and implementation of empirically supported interventions (ESIs), under the expectation that service delivery through such intervention frameworks results in improvements in cost-effectiveness and system performance.…

Discusses heuristic approach to scientific social work research as philosophy of research that draws from contemporary philosophy of science and cultural, cognitive, and linguistic studies and that endorses research as tool for advocacy. Presents fundamental concepts of heuristic model, emphasizing how new conceptual foundations can facilitate…

Suggests that clinical social work methods will become increasingly problem-oriented in assessment, more active in intervention, more specific in setting treatment goals, briefer in duration, and more amenable to evaluation. Presents clinical-administrative model and discusses implications for social work education and research. (Author/NB)

Notes that empirical clinical practice has become important approach to social work practice. Analyzes metatheoretical and methodological justification for empirical clinical practice. Based on analysis, concludes that argument for empirical clinical practice as dominant approach to social work practice is weak and that alternative approaches…