Pre-Conference Workshop

Using Individual Case Methods to Build Theory and Determine the Effectiveness of Interventions

 

PRESENTER: Dr. Jason Davies

DATE: June 17, 2024

TIME: 9am - 5pm

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS: 7 credits

COST: $300 CAD (includes 2 catered coffee break; lunch NOT included)

DESCRIPTION: 

Awareness and recognition of diversity within forensic mental health settings presents challenges and opportunities for theory development and our understanding of “what works”. However, the group-based research methods which are widely adopted to examine the effectiveness of treatment are limited to determining if an intervention might work, ‘on average’, across a large number of participants. Such ‘averages’ can disguise the variability of outcomes within a treatment group, the negative impacts of treatment for some and ignores diversity through an assumption of homogeneity.

This workshop will examine how methods that enable a systematic and rigorous focus on the individual can be used to tackle some of the challenges facing forensic mental health practice. A variety of methods such as case study, qualitative methods and single case paradigms have been used to pioneer and establish theory and to provide a ‘proof of concept’ for emerging interventions. However, such methods have much to offer practitioners, researchers and academics seeking to respond to the increased awareness and attention to individual difference, diversity and bias to establish more meaningful, inclusive and responsive forensic mental health theory, service provision and outcome evidence. This workshop will be of interest to service providers wishing to develop service-based evidence, practitioners wishing to determine treatment impact(s) and to researchers wishing to use idiographic methods for theory development and outcomes research.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: 

By the end of this workshop participants should be able to:

1. identify uses and limitations of widely used group-based quantitative and qualitative methods in forensic mental health settings
2. explain how individual focussed methods (e.g. case study, single case) can be used for theory development and determining the nature and extent of treatment outcomes
3. apply individual focussed methods (e.g. case study, single case) to enable a systematic and rigorous focus on the individual

Participants will also be supported to develop a personal implementation plan to support the transfer of the workshop learning into their own service, practice or research.