Identifying and Developing Effective Interventions in Rehabilitation Settings: Recognising the Limits of the Evidence-Based Practice Approach

Abstract

The evidence-based practice movement has led to higher quality intervention studies being reported in the health sciences literature (see, for example, Mosely et al., 2002), and consequently being available for uptake by practising health professionals. Yet interventions in applied settings need to satisfy more than the methodologically-based criteria associated with being categorised as a ‘well-established treatment’ (Chambless et al., 1996). Some of these additional criteria were recently described by King and Ollendick (2007). The current article extends these criteria so as to include attributes of interventions that (ideally) are required when designing or delivering services within rehabilitation settings.