FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2009
Contact: Gail Woods Waller
202.336.8236
gwaller@naswdc.org
New Social Work Policy Institute Launches with Nov. 16 Symposium
WASHINGTON DC—Prominent social work researchers met at the National Association of Social Workers today to examine how the social work profession might best contribute to expanding comparative effectiveness research (CER) for health and psychosocial services. The goal is to develop a profession-wide action agenda that addresses areas of enhanced social work research, researcher training, interdisciplinary collaborations, research-to-practice connections and communication efforts.
CER compares the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health care conditions in real world settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by disseminating evidence-based information about the most effective services to patients, clinicians and other decision makers.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 contained $1.1 billion for such research and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has identified 100 top priorities for policy implementation—many of which involve social work interventions.
“For decades social work researchers across the country have been investigating and evaluating what works in social service and health interventions,” said Joan Levy Zlotnik, director of the Social Work Policy Institute which hosted the meeting. “The new federal commitment to expanding research in these areas is a welcomed validation of this work, and an important call to action for the entire social work profession.”
Today’s symposium covered a range of topics, including:
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Economic analysis of effective psychosocial interventions
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Gaps and challenges between CER and psychosocial research
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Effectiveness research in complex systems with special populations
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Researcher training and capacity building
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Linkages between social work research and practice