Abstract
In Client-Centered Evaluation: New Models for Helping Professionals, Bloom and Britner have done an excellent job of introducing a new approach to single-system evaluation, which is suitable for undergraduate students and practitioners new to the field of social work, as well as advanced level practitioners and students. This textbook illuminates an innovative approach to evaluating practice in which clients are at the center of each phase of the processes. Moreover, the authors present strategies for conducting evaluations of practice “without the use of statistics or other artificialities in the name of science” (p. xi), and they do so with conceptual and theoretically-derived objectives and content that is firmly supported by high-quality empirical research.
It is argued that the use of single-system designs (SSDs) allows the practitioner to intervene with a single person, married couple, classroom of students, and other units of analyses. When incorporating the laws of logic to demonstrate change and document the degree to which change is the result of a practice intervention, or not, it can be extremely useful to involve the client from start to finish. Furthermore, the client-centered evaluation of practice (C-CEP) approach is effective across disciplines, including social work, psychology, allied health, and other helping professions.
The book begins with an introduction to the client-centered evaluation approach. The authors use case-study presentations to help the learner to understand the complexity of practice issues that may arise with clients and how the C-CEP is a tool for documenting change. To this end, eight steps are outlined for the evaluation process—(1) identify the client who defines the goals in the case, (2) select intermediary objectives and their specific targets, (3) identify evidence-based, (4) collect data in an ongoing basis and plot data on graphs, (5) construct clear benchmarks to know when the results are (or are not) successful, (6) engage the client in determining whether the client’s goals have been attained during intervention, (7) introduce a maintenance phase in which the client is in complete control of the intervention on her or his own, and (8) analyze patterns of data to coordinate with the client’s statements. To understand these basic steps is the key to success in applying this new model to social work practice.
When the book presents the discussion of conceptualization and naming what we see in the client situation, the case study eases the reader into what could be a convoluted presentation of terms and constructs. Instead, the authors make use of very interesting language and presentation style to introduce the learner to goals setting by describing concepts, propositions, and theory. Then, measurement, attaching numbers to the client situation is addressed in the next chapter. The most important message in this chapter is the point made about how important it is to have accurate measurement of the client’s presenting concerns as well as the context in which these concerns occur.
Measurement, the authors argue, ensures that a client-centered evaluation of practice reflects individual concerns in the process of connecting numbers to the client situation. This can be achieved through the use of abstract guiding concepts to concrete realities that make up a client’s life. Precise measurement and observations assist in the construction of a viable plan of action in evidence-based general practice.
To provide visual expressions of the measured concepts and constructs, Chapter 4 of the book outlines a comprehensive exploration and explanation of graphing. The basic rules of graphing in client-centered evaluation begin with the three rules; drawing the axes, labeling the graph, and adding the data points on the graph. The expectations to the rule are explained as well as examples of how to monitor and interpret outcomes. The depictions of the measured outcomes are extremely helpful in this chapter. The additional chapters in the measurement section explain rating scales and structured logs, behavioral observations, standardized rating scales, as well as qualitative data in SSDs: self-monitoring and measurement cautions. All of which are topics that are integral to the client-centered evaluation process. This information is presented clearly and concisely.
The authors’ use of findings that are derived from evidenced-based practice (p. 41) makes this textbook a more likely source of reliable information than books based on other sources of knowledge. Although the overall book is rooted in empirical evidence, Chapter 5, in particular, addresses information retrieval and how to go about finding general evidence-based practice information. Specific studies are cited to confirm and/or document areas of client-centered evaluation such as self-efficacy, motivation, achievement, and performance (pp. 44–47).
The rest of the book is dedicated to the basics of evaluation, including baseline, designs, analyses, and decision making. The goal of these sections seems to be to provide simplicity to what can be very complex processes. Bloom and Britner use scenarios and diagram figures in ways that will be appealing to learners of different types. For the instructor, these examples can be presented out loud for the auditory learner or displayed in the classroom for the visual learner or incorporated into classroom activities for the kinesthetic learner. Furthermore, the level at which the material is presented in the book is well suited for graduate students but would be ideal for undergraduate students as well; especially given the many pictorial, visual descriptions, and explanations provided throughout this book. Each chapter concludes with a summary that suggests strategies and vast resources that can be used by social work educators, students, practitioners, and even researchers to learn to apply the concepts of the book to actual client-centered evaluations.
Additionally, it would be helpful to have online resources for faculty who are teaching courses in which this text is used, including an instructor’s manual that offers web resources that can be downloaded, discussion questions, assignment ideas, and a test bank.