NIDA to Train Researchers

Agencies deliberately engage social workers in developing knowledge driven by research.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has contracted with the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR) to conduct a pilot workshop in May designed to train social work researchers to apply successfully for NIDA grants.

The pilot workshop is a major step in an alliance with government to move from a largely theory-based foundation to a research-driven knowledge base for social work practice — a move that will put the profession in a better position to demonstrate the effectiveness of its services, say IASWR managers.

The first of what IASWR hopes will be three workshops will be in the Washington, D.C., area and will accommodate about 35 researchers. The two-day program is for serious researchers who already have in place the resources to do the research and a clear idea of what they want to do, said Christine Lucas, IASWR project coordinator.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), of which NIDA is a part, stress interdisciplinary work, so it is important that grant proposals include a cross-section of disciplines, she said. "Applicants need to collaborate with others, like community agencies or health maintenance organizations, in developing proposals. NIH is not interested in solo research."

NIDA just published Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment — A Research Based Guide and is interested in seeing research findings applied in the field, said Lucas.

Researchers with the best ideas and concept papers will be selected for participation by IASWR. Trainers at the workshop will inform researchers about NIDA's current research priorities and the basics of the NIH application process, with special attention to methods and budget justification. Five social work facilitators who have been successful in getting NIDA grants will conduct one-on-one sessions with participants to hone proposals so they get funded.

The NIDA grant to IASWR is part of continuing support for social work research stemming from a profession-wide task force in 1991, sponsored by the National Institute on Mental Health, that documented the serious shortage of research about the efficacy of social work practice.

The task force report, Building Social Work Knowledge for Effective Services and Policies: A Plan for Research Development, found that the amount of practice-relevant research being contributed to the social work practice knowledge base lagged far behind the dynamic growth of the profession and professional education.

This, the report said, "has serious consequences for individuals using social work services, for professional practitioners, for the credibility of the profession and for the American society. Billions of dollars are being spent for services to deal with critical social problems, including services provided by social workers. Extremely little is being spent on research to improve the effectiveness of such services."

No federal agency that supported research on human services issues had a systematic program for backing research within social work, the task force reported.

That is why IASWR is so pleased that NIDA and the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse [see related story] are deliberately engaging social work researchers.

IASWR, which was created as a result of the 1991 task force report, has collaborated with NIDA since 1995 to increase the number of social work research-proposal applications, inform social workers about NIDA research opportunities and build the social work infrastructure and research culture in social work schools and programs.

IASWR, whose offices are in the NASW national office, was formed and is funded by NASW, the Council on Social Work Education, the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, the Groups for the Advancement of Doctoral Education, and the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work.

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Copyright NASW Press, 1998