The Foundational Roles of Technology in Agency EBP Work

For evidence based practices to come alive, we must measure everything… and not using our fingers and toes!

It All Started with Looking For A Better Way…

Ten years ago, there was little reason to focus on the software features needed to design an EBP software system. Early in the EBP movement, agencies’ pursuit of EBP was tied to “validated risk assessments” and new case management disciplines as characterized in Motivational Interviewing.[i] In other words, there was little impact on legacy case management systems. In fact, new automation was centered on the emerging risk assessment tools. 

Today, with rising expectations from funding agencies, courts, and our community stakeholders to show progress in EBP, measure outcomes, and determine what works with our own client populations, the rules have changed. There is fresh impetus and opportunity to reconsider what it means to have a modern-day case management system for the residential and non-residential community corrections field. After all, legislators and community stakeholders have been convinced of the merits of the science and strategy behind investing in offender rehabilitation instead of incarceration. The challenge for the coming decade is to show real results and make meaningful efforts to learn about outcomes, apply new knowledge, and create a system of people, processes and data that brings the promise of EBP to life.

Reporting Nightmares No More

"You want to report on all that hard work you do with your client, right?" Words our unsung hero, the case manager, loathes hearing. Of course we know reports are important. Of course we know that done correctly, reports are vital to our clients’ progress and our success as case managers. But it’s hard to be convinced that we should take joy in completing intake, monthly or termination reports.

Reporting on a client’s progress (or lack thereof) is very important, yet community corrections case managers continually struggle with keeping up with paperwork type responsibilities, deadlines and having enough time to meet with clients in a quality fashion.

Even the best case managers aren’t able to spend the time they should with their clients because they must also keep up with compliance and paperwork requirements. You know what it is like to have to locate everything you, and others, have already done and put it into a report… every time a client intakes... every month… every incident… all of the treatment… all of the drug test outcomes… and of course every time a client terminates… and usually all of the above.

This is the 4th of a 7 part series on The Risk Principle Simplified.  Subscribe to our blog and get the series delivered right to your inbox.

What does "High Intensity" mean?

While the principle of matching risk level to treatment intensity level is almost universally accepted, an adequate definition of “intensity” is rarely given. The best definition is offered by Ed Latessa and Christopher Lowenkamp of the University of Cincinnati in their 2004 article titled, “Residential Community Corrections and the Risk Principle: Lessons Learned in Ohio”. The authors believe strongly in quality of treatment and have published several useful articles about its importance, but in this article they lay out a useful definition of intervention “intensity”.

• High intensity intervention equals residential placement and low intensity treatment equals non-residential treatment.  

Along with providing, in my opinion, the best definition of “intensity,” this article also provided greater evidence of the importance of matching risk level to intervention intensity.  A central finding in the study was: 

• When low risk offenders are placed in residential facilities, their rate of reoffending is higher than for low risk offenders who do not receive residential placement.

Having the Right Ingredients

Baking soda or baking powder? Make sure you check your recipe card before you go dumping in the wrong one. My husband was so kind to make me his first batch of chocolate chip cookies one evening… while I was pregnant and it was urgent that I had some. Let’s just say, he used the wrong one and even though they didn’t taste quite right, I still ate several. What does this have to do with community based corrections you ask?

It’s also important to have all of your key ingredients when completing a case plan with your client. Almost universally in the community based corrections world, there is a risk assessment used to help case managers assess the top criminogenic (crime creating) needs. Setting goals in your case plan to address these high-risk areas increases the chance of reducing this risk. Criminogenic needs and goals are usually required ingredients in a case plan.

The unsung hero: the community corrections employee.