When community practitioners look to implement best practices, summaries of research through meta-analyses or systematic reviews provide little usable knowledge as community settings are “real.” This necessitates a new approach to identify best practices and a realist approach to synthesizing best practices is ideal. Initially, as a post-doctoral fellow where I co-authored a realist review identifying best practices for treating homeless adults with concurrent disorders in community settings. Since then, a group of undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in a number of realist reviews.
(1) A completed review on brief alcohol interventions in emergency settings (Davey, Herman, Quintero, Pecora, & McShane, Under Review);
(2) A nearly completed review on motivational interviewing for adolescent health behaviours (McShane, Davey, Rouse, Nacarrato, & Birchall, In Preparation);
(3) A nearly completed review on family-based addictions programs for children and parents (Usher, & McShane, K. In Preparation);
(4) A review in progress of PTSD treatment for refugee and immigrant youth.