The secondassignment aims to demonstrate students’ ability to: 1) locate and appraise the available evidence regarding Evidence Based-Interventions (EBIs) and Evidence-Based Assessment (EBA) tools, selecting the best ones

Social Work 635
Fall 2021
Assignment 2: Evidence Informed Practice Decision Making and Evaluation (35% of Course Grade)
Due the week of Unit 11
Building upon the first assignment, students will develop an evidence-based plan for intervention with the client identified in Assignment 1, including a plan for evaluation. The secondassignment aims to demonstrate students’ ability to: 1) locate and appraise the available evidence regarding Evidence Based-Interventions (EBIs) and Evidence-Based Assessment (EBA) tools, selecting the best ones – using an Evidence-Based Practice decisionmaking approach – for use in a particular practice situation; and 2) develop plans for evaluation of change efforts in professional practice. To this end, students will develop a practice-focused paper in which they address a specific client situation, locating, appraising, and selecting the best EBI and EBA tool for use, subsequently creating a plan for evaluating their practice effectiveness. It will be necessary to do multiple literature searchesto identify the necessary and appropriate scholarly evidence for this assignment.
Following is a summary of the required elements of the paper. Please follow the bolded headings and subheadings as an outline.
Client Background and Problem Formulation: Provide a briefsummary of your client and important background information. (You are welcome to draw from your first assignment for this). Discuss your formulation of the client’s problem(s) for which you will provide intervention. [What does your assessment and diagnostic impression tell you about how to conceptualize the problem?] Integrate two references from relevant scholarlyliterature to support your formulation. (approximately 1/2-1 page)
Selected Evidence-Based Intervention: Flowing from your problem formulation, conduct a search to identify the suitable interventions with demonstrated effectiveness in addressing the problem or diagnosis for which your client seeks change. After considering and discussing the important factors from each of the dimensions involved in evidence-based practice decisionmaking, you will ultimately select the intervention you believe is the best one for use with your client (or population). Provide a summary of the intervention and a brief critical appraisal of the literature examining its efficacy and effectiveness. The requested details and suggested outline follow. Be sure to include appropriate citations. (approximately 3-4 pages)
(NOTE: The evidence search should aim for interventions that ideally have multiple experimental or at least quasi-experimental studies reporting some level of effectiveness. True documentation that an intervention is evidence-based occurs only when there is outcome data from a body of evaluative studies, indicating a positive change in the target behavior. Also, please bear in mind that this section of the paper should address what is known about the intervention, as based on the body of available evidencesupporting its effectiveness. It is not intended to be a summary of a single evaluative study.)
EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Best Available Evidence – Discuss the major findings, overall strength/rigor and extent of the body of empirical evidence examining interventions for the identified problem; the outcomes for which the interventions have been demonstrated effective; the populations and settings examined; and intervention limitations.
EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Client Characteristics – Discuss the meaningful client-related factors you have identified as meaningful to your intervention decisionmaking, including dimensions of diversity, values, and preferences.
EBP Decisionmaking Factor: Resources/Practitioner – Discuss the meaningful practitioner and other resource-related considerations you have identifiedas meaningful to your selection of an intervention.
EBP Decisionmaking: Other Considerations – Describeany other considerations with implications for your decisionmaking, including specific agency- and/or broader environmental factors.
Brief Intervention Summary – Identify the intervention you believe is the best one to use with your client and provide a brief overview of it, including its name, key elements, and a brief summary of intervention delivery, including the critical components that are essential for fidelity. Please briefly explain yourrationale for selecting this intervention, as well as appraising your level of confidence that it is likely to be effective.
Plan for Evaluation of Intervention Outcomes: The final portion of the paper involves development of a specific practice evaluation plan wherein students will be able to assess the presence and extent of change that may be occurring, and to use the findings for ongoing practice decisionmaking. Following is a list of requested elements to be addressed. (approximately 3-4 pages, including diagram)
Outcome Objectives – Clearly state two specific outcome objectives for your work with your client. Objectives should be specified in measurable terms and consistent with your problem formulation and chosen intervention. (Ideally, this would be mutually identified, flowing from your agreed-upon treatment/care plan.) The objectives should follow SMART format or otherwise address the following dimensions:Direction (Do you want the measurement values to go up or down?), Level (At what level do you consider the objective to successful?), Duration (How long does the improvement need to be maintained to be considered successful?), and Time to completion (How long do you expect achieving the objective to take?)
Evidence Based Assessment/Measurement Tool – For oneof the outcome objectives, conduct a search of empirical evidence for an evidence-based assessment/measurement tools that would provide for evaluation of change in the target outcome over time. Select the tool that you believe is the best one for measuring change in this situation, based on consideration of the best available empirical evidence, along with client and contextual factors. The following details about the measure should be provided: measurement name and brief summary (# of items, purpose, etc.); established forms of reliability and validity; materials and administration method/steps; scoring and interpretation guidelines; and your rationale for selection of this measure, including an appraisal of the quality and applicability of the tool for use with your selected client in this particular practice situation, along with other factors considered in your decisionmaking. Be sure to include appropriate citations.
NOTE: Where feasible, please attach a copy of the selected tool as an appendix when submitting this assignment. It will not be included in the page count.
Evaluation Design and Plan for Data Collection – Briefly describe the type of single system design you would expect to use, along with an explanation for why the design would be most appropriate. Provide the key details of your plan for collecting and tracking outcomes data.
Depiction and Interpretation of Data – Though actual data collection is not requested, please provide a graph of the way you envision your client’s data might look in the case of successful intervention, using mock data.
Assignment Guidelines
The assignment should not exceed 8 double-spaced pages in total, formatted as an APA style paper. Please use headings and subheadings to organize your paper, providing in-text citations and a reference list.
The evaluation of the assignment will be based on whether you addressed all aspects of the assignment, as well as the quality, clarity and completeness of your written work (graduate level writing, organization, flow, depth, mechanics of writing such as grammar, spelling, etc.).