Barriers to Development, Utilization, and Evaluation of Social Work Practice Guidelines: Toward an Action Plan for Social Work

Abstract

The authors summarize and respond to the comments made by the respondents to their target article on practice guidelines. Among the issues addressed are the limited scientific foundations of selected practice guidelines, potential resistance from practitioners, costs of guideline development, poorly operationalized guidelines, the potential ineffectiveness of guidelines, ethical considerations, and contextual factors. The authors conclude with an action plan to promote the practice guideline movement within social work.