Where Does Applied Research Fit Into Your Future? Peer Posting

You need to write a response to each peer's posting and support the response with at least two references.

1st Peer Posting

Implementing Research Skills

            I have for some time now, had an interest in doing research work. As clinician’s work in the field of mental health, eventually, over time perhaps, one will be able to incorporate parts of various therapeutic theories which will work better than the whole of another theory. Corey (2013) refers to this practice is an integrated approach to therapy, where aspects of two or more theoretical approaches can be combined to create a more comprehensive therapy to better serve clients. This somewhat eclectic approach parallels the concept of what much research in counseling is aimed at- discovering a better way of treatment through convergence or divergence of counseling principles (Corey, 2012). Essentially, research is aimed at discovery of program worthiness or effectiveness, or suspecting there may be ways to implement or incorporate program updates. Both these research evaluations and integrated approaches have a common goal- to serve clients in a better way and to help them to be more successful.

            Where it may be easy to see the integrated theory approach to be squarely a domain for seasoned, skilled counselors to effect a combined treatment approach, I can see program research and evaluation to be an entry level domain- provided the newcomer has had some skill building in evaluations. I say this because it is well known that it is easier to take the reins and explore other options than it may be for a practitioner who has executed a treatment process time and time again following facility or agency requisites or standards. Bluntly, experience isn’t always number one determinant.

            To date, my experience in internship will be to work with Borderline Personality Disorder people, typically mandated to treatment by the legal system. This is the major reason for choosing the hypothetical program evaluation that I did. I could not say whether I would be chosen to do such an research undertaking, however, it is my understanding that my Internship site is in fact looking into other theoretical approaches to working with BPD at this time. If asked, I can say  I would certainly jump in with both feet and accept the challenge.

Resource

Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (9th ed.). Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Pub.

 2nd Peers Posting

Will you engage in action research in your community?

Action research in any mental health program or community is extremely important in continuing with the growth of effective and efficient mental health agencies. As a counselor, there is no doubt that I would become involved with action research to be a part of discovering what changes need to be made Royse,Thyer, & Padgett, 2016) as well as being an integral part of helping to plan and implement the changes for the better.

Will you will be asked to help write a grant or to administer one?

Although I have limited experience with grant-writing, I would be very interested in being part of it. I took a class for a former job about grant-writing and even though it appears that a lot of work goes into writing grant, the benefits definitely make the work worth it. Grant-writing will also most likely be a part of my job in the future because I plan on starting out at a non-profit and it’s better to go into nonprofits with an open mind about grant writing.

Will you assist with the collection and analysis of data at your site in order to demonstrate your agency's effectiveness?

I would love to assist in the collection and analysis of data in a mental health agency. My current job, working with emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children, as well as past jobs have all required ongoing documentation, so gathering data has sort of become second nature.

Will you adapt counseling programs described in published efficacy studies for use in your own community?

I would definitely adapt counseling programs for use in my own community. It is important to remember that the instruments used in one program need to be evaluated for how appropriate they are for using with different populations (ACA, 2014). Working collaboratively with the stakeholders of the program would help to ensure that the practices are the best fitting and most appropriate for the program participants (Botcheva, Shih, & Huffman, 2009).

References

American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics.

Botcheva, L., Shih, J., & Huffman, L. C. (2009). Emphasizing cultural competence in evaluation

a process-oriented approach. American Journal of Evaluation, 30(20), 176-188.

Royse, D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. K. (2016). Program evaluation: An introduction to a  evidence-based approach (6th ed.).