Research
for decision making
While there is a great deal of research that enhances understanding
of the social environment and shapes your general or 'macro-level' approach
to work with service users, there is far less that assists in decision
making about how to approach particular types of cases or deal with individual
situations. There are two basic reasons:
- real life situations are so complex and diverse that although research
may be relevant, it rarely matches precisely the situation you
are dealing with and the differences may be crucial. Research works
by aggregating
cases or by exploring individual situations that are by definition
unique.
- research is usually about patterns of behaviour and responses that
indicate probabilities in particular situations but this cannot
be precise about the outcome of a particular situation. For
example research that
identifies factors that are associated with physical or sexual
abuse, or neglect, can alert you to the dangers in a particular
situation, and
can help you assess the likelihood of abuse. However it cannot
tell you if abuse has occurred in the actual case you are
dealing with.
Within these limitations research has a crucial role to play both
in shaping the way in which deal with cases at a 'meso-level',
and in the finer 'micro-level' detail of interventions.
 Meso-level decision making
Examples of a meso-level approach would be to look at research about
how people deal with bereavement and how understanding of those processes
can be translated into effective counselling and practical help for people,
including children, who have been bereaved. While each person's situation
and response is unique there are clear patterns in and stages of natural
bereavement processes that need to be understood, together with awareness
of the problems that arise if bereavement processes are suppressed. Research
may show that there are serious mismatches between the actual needs involved
and the frequent social expectations to suppress grief, or at best to
curtail it.
There are many areas of social need where existing knowledge and understanding
of the issues involved and appropriate interventions is limited. It is
perhaps as easy to underestimate the extent of your knowledge as it is
tempting and dangerous to overestimate it. There are areas such as child
abuse where research knowledge about the factors involved and the danger
signs are much greater, even if knowledge about best responses remains
uncertain or contradictory and subject to external pressures and demands.
It can be argued that social work's ability to assess and understand
problems is better that it's ability to apply effective solutions.
Mental illness is an area where sometimes research based solutions, or
apparent
solutions, can be ahead of wider understanding. Knowledge of the
effectiveness of anti-depressant or psychotropic (mood-altering) drugs
is often ahead
of knowledge about how they work and their long-term influence. Treatments
such as Electro-Convulsive Therapies(ECT), although largely discredited
nowadays, were historically justified by some evidence of effectiveness
in relation to other available treatments, accompanied by ignorance
of how it worked.
 Micro level decision making
As identified earlier, research cannot provide the answers to how to
work with a particular individuals, families or groups. However it
can give many pointers to questions to ask and signs to look for. For
example
research about the incidence of child neglect as opposed to child
abuse can help increase sensitivity and awareness of the possibility
of child
neglect in cases you are dealing with. Similarly probation officers
who are aware that over 50% of their clients are likely to have an identifiable
functional literacy problem are more like to identify literacy problems
than others who are less aware.
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