What is Evidence based practice?
Evidence Based Practice model
Evidence-based practice brings together the best available research, professional expertise, and input from young people and families, to identify and deliver services that have been demonstrated to achieve positive outcomes for young people, families, and communities.
Evidence-based programs and practices are specific techniques and intervention models that have shown to have positive effects on outcomes through rigorous evaluations.
Since the young people served by WAGS deserve the best treatment available, it’s important for us to evaluate the techniques that are currently being used to ensure that our practices meet these standards. We owe it to the young people we work with that we account for the work we do and ensure we can justify our practice.
Evidence based practice is most commonly conceptualised as practice based on evidence gathered from research. This doesn’t mean that everything we do has to have come from a piece of research that says it worked. In fact there can be issues with applying only this definition of evidence based practice. For instance:
· The research about a particular program or intervention may have occurred in a different time, place and with different people compared to the circumstances surrounding our clients.
· Certain approaches have more empirical evidence because they are researched more. They are researched more because they lend themselves well to research (if they are easily manualised and easily delivered in a uniform way), not because they are more effective.
· Other approaches may be harder to measure, are researched less and so have less evidence even if they seem to offer good results.
So although evidence based practice should definitely draw from the best available research evidence, WAGS uses a more integrative approach to evidence based practice and a richer description of evidence. Just relying on evidence drawn from research means trying something innovative or new may be impossible.
Read more about WAGS being focused on Early Intervention and based on Trauma Informed Principles
