Fellow of the Centre for Social Policy at Dartington Michael Power describes an attempt to evaluate a treatment program for violent men in circumstances in which a randomized controlled trial was ethically impossible.
Given the well-known barriers to implementing evidence-based programs, is it better to identify their discrete elements and trust practitioners to combine them in tailored packages depending on the needs of the child and family in question?
Tests in Australia on the effectiveness of the Family Risk Factor Checklist screening questionnaire have highlighted the difficulties parents and teachers alike face when they attempt to predict which children are most prone to mental health problems.