Metaanalysis of Research on Social Work Practice in Mental Health

on the effectiveness of social work practice in outpatient mental health set tings and identifies correlates of effective practice. Previous reviews of research on social work practice identified 53 studies that examined many areas of social work practice, such as child welfare, public welfare, and health care.1 The reviews have had important effects on the field but are limited in certain ways. With the exception of Segal's work, they combined studies from practice with different populations in many service contexts to answer whether a presumably generic social work intervention was effective. Social work practice was treated as a single entity regardless with which clients or problems and in which setting the practitioner worked. Furthermore, the reviews were restricted to studies published in social work journals, thus excluding social work research con ducted in multidisciplinary settings. This particular review focuses only on mental health practice. Mental health was chosen because it is a major arena for social work practice. Also, the largest proportion of research studies on social work practice are found in mental health.2 Social work mental health services were