Kauffman Best Practices Project Final Report - The Chadwick Center ...

Develop plan for Authentic Voices to focus elements of their social
movement on the spread of these Best Practices - While we have learned much
about how a motivated organization can adopt these Best Practices, such
motivation to seek out and adopt evidence-based intervention is often absent
in many, if not most, organizations providing therapy to abused children and
their families. What’s more, the broader political and funding environment
does not support, much less demand, delivery of these efficacious services.
A Social Movement, which is led by people who know the pain of abuse first
hand, can become an important driver in spreading interest in the Best
Practice interventions. The National Call To Action’s Authentic Voice
Movement is ideally suited to take up this cause. Composed of persons from
across the nation and from all walks of life that share a common bond: they
know personally, or through the experience of a loved one, the pain of abuse.
If the National Call Authentic Voice Leadership equipped it’s growing
membership with knowledge and strategies on how to raise awareness of the
identified Best Practices in their states and communities, we could influence
the pace by which government, funding, and service delivery organizations
became aware of the Best Practices and, with that awareness, move them from
the Precontemplative or Contemplation stage to the Preparation and Action
stages – change to provide the highest quality of care possible.
CONCLUSION
In the field of child abuse and neglect, there is a chasm between Best Practice
and everyday practice. Each day, children receive a wide variety of therapeutic
interventions of which disturbingly few are scientifically proven. As a result,
children and their families receive a wide variation in the quality of care.
To address these limitations and advance the field, the Kauffman Foundation
provided support to the Chadwick Center and National Call to determine how
to ensure effective outcomes for children and families in helping children heal
from the traumatic effects of child abuse. Rapid widespread implementation
and utilization of TF - CBT, AF - CBT, and PCIT Best Practices are vitally
important first steps to crossing this quality chasm.
In the final analysis, the use of Evidenced Based Treatment provides therapists
with choices in the interventions they may select to use to resolve the specific
problems with which a client presents. The use of EBT also provides support to
therapists in that they can be assured that the interventions they use are
empirically grounded. The Kauffman Project has introduced three Best Practices
to the reader. The early foundations of EBT are now in place. It will take
training, funding, peer support and intense effort from all of us to build on
these existing foundations. The provision of the best possible interventions
to traumatized children is a professional value that few would disavow. The
efficacious and compassionate healing of the trauma for these children is a
worthy goal towards which we must strive as professionals.
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