Tools for Strengths-Based Assessment and Evaluation - Springer ...

Foreword
As Sir Winston Churchill wryly observed, “However beautiful the strategy, you should
occasionally look at the results.” To do this, practitioners and researchers in the helping
professions need psychometrically sound, yet practical measures that suit their
purposes.
The good news is that hundreds—if not thousands—of measures have been developed,
tested, and published that allow practitioners, researchers, and educators from
diverse helping professions to “look at the results.” The bad news is that the number of
available measures has become so large that oftentimes it is difficult for busy practitioners
and researchers to sift through the many available measures and select the ones that are
psychometrically sound, practical, and best for their purposes.
Fortunately, in the past 20 years, numerous books have been published that review,
critique, and sometimes reproduce measures for practice and research (see Outcome-
Informed, Evidence-Based Practice for a comprehensive list of these books published since
2000: Orme & Combs-Orme, 2012). Some of these books focus on particular problem
areas (e.g., alcohol problems, eating disorders, anxiety). Others focus on areas of practice
(e.g., mental health, rehabilitation, health care). Some focus on particular populations
(e.g., children and adolescents, the aging). Still others focus on particular professions or
disciplines (e.g., social work, psychiatry, psychology). Such books provide rich resources
for busy practitioners and researchers.
Unfortunately, although most helping professionals recognize the importance of client
strengths, resources, capabilities, and other positive qualities, it can be difficult to find
and select measures of these important constructs. This can be especially difficult because
measures of these constructs have been developed by researchers working in diverse disciplines,
and strengths-based measurement is a relatively new area in some respects. Very few,
if any, books have systematically pulled these measures together in one place and provided
a framework for selecting and evaluating them. Tools for Strengths-Based Assessment and
Evaluation fills this important gap.
A cornerstone of evidence-based practice, the new holy grail of social work, is to employ
the methods and measures shown by evidence to be the most effective. Up until the publication
of this book, the social worker who has wanted to document his or her clients’
strengths has faced a difficult and labor-intensive process in locating the most appropriate
measures, let alone evaluating the evidence for their reliability and validity. Clearly, the
realities of 21st-century social work practice make this a formidable task.
Now, Drs. Simmons and Lehmann have given all of us in the helping professions—
practitioners and researchers alike—a comprehensive resource for finding and selecting
psychometrically sound, practical strengths-based measures that we can use not only to
“look at the results,” but to do so in a way that we “measure others by their strengths.” We
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