We are living and working in an exciting time where we know more about what treatments work for groups of people with a variety of specific challenges. In the broadest sense, an "Evidence Based Practice" is a practice that has been researched and found to get favorable results in response to a given problem. Standards regarding what practices meet criteria as an "evidence based practice" vary from very loose to very rigorous.
Good questions to ask yourself are:
- WHAT problem does this practice or treatment address?
- WHERE is the evidence that it's effective?
- WHO determined that it is evidence based?
- HOW did they determine this?
For an exemplary model and one of the most rigorous frameworks for determining best practices in the Youth Violence prevention field, see The Blueprints Project.
In the human services industry we are now in a position to use science and research to match problems with solutions that have been proven to work, helping young people, individuals and families improve their lives. We have also learned that evidence based practices don't get desired outcomes unless they are implemented with quality and fidelity; as close to how they were originally designed and tested as possible.
Now that we have a more solid understanding of "what works" for a variety of human service problems, the cutting edge challenge for most organizations is to implement "what works" with fidelity. It has been well established that training alone or a "train and hope" approach to implementation has not yielded desired outcomes with clients. Stages of implementation have recently been identified to help organizations consider the systems needed to reach a level of functioning where staff practices can be linked to the performance outcomes the organization seeks.
Stages of Implementation can be described in 3 phases: PAPER, PROCESS AND PERFORMANCE (NIRN 2005):
For most organizations the challenge to achieve sustainability is to move beyond the stage of Paper Implementation. "80-90% of the people dependent innovations in industry stop at paper implementation" (Rogers 2002).
For an excellent synthesis of implementation research in the Human Services Literature see the NIRN website.
Many organizations are on the learning edge, exploring ways to move beyond "train and hope" or paper implementation to build their service system to arrive at performance implementation. You may be one of these organizations.
If you have invested in a research based practice or innovation in your organization, or you are considering implementation of a research based innovation, Integrative Life Services can help you create a Performance Package that will move you to the next level. Click here to learn more. |
