Developing and Delivering Practice-Based Evidence : A Guide for the Psychological Therapies

Evidence-based practice is the model currently endorsed by UK and other authorities for, amongst other things, psychological interventions. Yet because it places value on randomised control trials and meta-analytic studies above other methodologies, it can be divorced from reality and is not always relevant to practitioners. Client outcomes can be improved by combining evidence-based practice with practice-based research, which seeks to ascertain the value of an intervention when administered by a real individual or team to a real client under real circumstances and conditions. This important book outlines the approach in six easy-to-use sections: Concepts; Measurement; Methods; Collaborative Approaches; Quality Impacts; and Synthesis.

Michael Barkham is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Centre for Psychological Services Research at the University of Sheffield. He has published approximately 150 scientific papers and 30 book chapters in the fields of clinical psychology, counselling, and psychotherapy and has an abiding commitment to strengthening the paradigm of practice-based evidence. Gillian E. Hardy is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Clinical Psychology Unit and the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme, at the University of Sheffield. She has published extensively in the field of psychotherapy outcome and process research. John Mellor-Clark has been engaged in the evaluation of UK psychological therapies and counselling for the past 20 years. Throughout the mid-1990s, he led the development of the CORE System as the first standardized quality, evaluation system in the UK for psychological therapy. Today this system is used by over 250 services and 3,500 clinicians to help measure, monitor, and manage therapy outcomes.