Examining the Premises Supporting the Empirically Supported Intervention Approach to Social Work Practice (Report) (Essay‪)‬

Over the past decade, federal, state, and local policymakers, funders, and human service system architects have increasingly organized human service delivery functions around empirically supported intervention (ESI) guidelines. The rising popularity of the ESI approach, defined as the selection and implementation of scientifically validated therapeutic interventions, has been partly in response to public demands for cost-effective programming and partly in furtherance of improving the quality and performance of clinical programs serving historically disadvantaged client populations (Gambrill, 2006; Rizzo & Fortune, 2006; Zlotnick, 2007). ESI standards are now commonly used to organize service provision in the major fields of practice employing social workers, including the child welfare, health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment sectors (Chaffin & Friedrich, 2004; Gray, 2001; Norcross, Beutler, & Levant, 2005). Partly in response to these trends, the Oregon legislature passed an ESI requirement law (Senate Bill 267) in 2003. The bill requires that state agencies providing human services dedicate increasing proportions of their biennial budgets to the implementation of ESIs. According to the law, an ESI is an efficacious intervention whose components are based on scientific research, including the use of systematic, empirical methods that draw on experiments or observation; rigorous data analysis methods to test formal hypotheses; and measures, research designs, and observational methods that allow for reliable and valid data collection. Under the law, the Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, Oregon Commission on Children and Families, and Oregon Youth Authority are required to devote 25 percent of their program funding to ESIs in fiscal years (FYs) 2005--07, 50 percent in FYs 2007-09, and 75 percent in FYs 2009-11. These agencies serve the great majority of children, youths, and families requesting human services in Oregon.