Evidence-Based Practice, Person-in-Environment, and Clinical Social Work: Issues of Practical Concern

Abstract

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a movement that has gained recent momentum in social work following the tradition of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Use of EBP as a guiding philosophy of clinical social work practice has been debated among academics, researchers, and clinicians for more than a decade. An area of complexity within EBP involves selecting the best available evidence while accounting for the person-in-environment model that has traditionally guided our profession. In this article, the author discusses differences between these two models of practice and problems that clinicians might encounter when attempting to adhere to both models concurrently. Case illustrations are used to illuminate the importance of the person-in-environment model to clinical social work practice in the time of EBP. Issues specific to the values and mission of social work are closely examined.