Improving the Effectiveness of the Helping Professions: An Evidence-Based Practice Approach

Improving the Effectiveness of the Helping Professions: An Evidence-Based Approach to Practice covers the use of research and critical thinking to assist helping professionals make the most effective choices in treating clients with social and emotional problems. The use of evidence-based practice (EBP) comes at a time when managed care and concerns over health care costs coincide with growing concerns that psychotherapy, case management, and counseling may not be sufficiently effective ways of helping people in social and emotional difficulty. The book provides an easy-to-read, inclusive approach covering EBP with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and terrorism, bereavement, substance abuse, mental illness, and problems experienced by older adults, among others.

Intended for social work and psychology students, this text introduces the core beliefs of evidence-based practice, explaining where to find best evidence of practice effectiveness, ways of analyzing and evaluating best evidence, and how to read research critically. Glicken (emeritus, California State University) then applies the approach to treating cluster B personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, mood disorders, terminal illness, and depression in older adults. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Dr. Morley D. Glicken is the former Dean of the Worden School of Social Service in San Antonio; the founding director of the Master of Social Work Department at California State University, San Bernardino; the past Director of the Master of Social Work Program at the University of Alabama; and the former Executive Director of Jewish Family Service of Greater Tucson. He has also held faculty positions in social work at the University of Kansas and Arizona State University. Dr. Glicken received his BA degree in social work with a minor in psychology from the University of North Dakota and holds an MSW degree from the University of Washington and the MPA and DSW degrees from the University of Utah. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Fraternity.  

Dr. Glicken published two books for Allyn and Bacon/Longman Publishers in 2003: The Role of the Helping Professions in the Treatment of Victims and Perpetrators of Crime (with Dale Sechrest), and A Simple Guide to Social Research; and two additional books for Allyn and Bacon/Longman in 2004: Violent Young Children, and Understanding and Using the Strengths Perspective. He published Improving the Effectiveness of the Helping Professions: An Evidence-Based Approach to Practice in 2005 for Sage Publications and is completing An Introduction to Social Work, Social Welfare Organizations, and Social Work, to be published by Sage in 2006.  

Dr. Glicken has published over 50 articles in professional journals and has written extensively on personnel issues for Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. He has held clinical social work licenses in Alabama and Kansas, and is amember of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. He is currently Professor Emeritus in Social Work at California State University, San Bernardino, and Director of the Institute for Positive Growth: A Research, Treatment and Training Institute in Palm Springs, California. The Institute's website may be found at: http://www.morleyglicken.com and Dr. Glicken can be reached online at [email protected]