Viviene E. Cree
The Challenge of Measuring Effectiveness in Social Work: A Case Study of an Evaluation of a Drug and Alcohol Referral Service in Scotland: Table 1.
Cree, Viviene E.; Jain, Sumeet; Hillen, Peter
Abstract
This article explores the challenge of measuring effectiveness in social work, building from an evaluation of a service for those with drug- and alcohol-related problems in Scotland conducted in 2012. Drug and alcohol misuse have long been recognised as major issues for the Scottish economy, health service and population, affecting high numbers of individuals, families and communities in Scotland. For this reason, it is vital that the services provided give ‘best value’ for service users and the country as a whole. But what is an effective service and how might this be measured? We will argue that demonstrating social work effectiveness is always difficult, but that the complex and interconnected nature of drug and alcohol problems makes it even more difficult to isolate the effectiveness of one intervention from another and from the context in which it is located. This suggests that, as we move forward, we need an approach to evaluation that acknowledges the systems within which individuals and services are operating (see Forrester et al., 2013), as well as the inevitably political nature of all evaluation (Gray et al., 2009).
Citation
Cree, V. E., Jain, S., & Hillen, P. (2014). The Challenge of Measuring Effectiveness in Social Work: A Case Study of an Evaluation of a Drug and Alcohol Referral Service in Scotland: Table 1. British Journal of Social Work, 46(1), 277-293. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcu118
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Oct 1, 2014 |
Online Publication Date | Oct 29, 2014 |
Publication Date | Oct 29, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Jun 5, 2017 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 5, 2017 |
Journal | British Journal of Social Work |
Print ISSN | 0045-3102 |
Electronic ISSN | 1468-263X |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 46 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 277-293 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcu118 |
Keywords | Drug and alcohol services, effectiveness, evaluation, social work services, best value, making a difference |
Public URL | http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/850797 |
Contract Date | Jun 5, 2017 |
Files
The challenge of measuring effectiveness in social work...
(120 Kb)
PDF
You might also like
Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot
(2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Naloxone In Police Scotland - June 2023 update
(2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Naloxone In Police Scotland: Pilot evaluation
(2022)
Report
Downloadable Citations
About Edinburgh Napier Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@napier.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search