My Eyes Roll Every Time I Hear Someone Say 'Evidence-Based'

The term isn’t new. It’s been a part of our community jargon for quite some time. If I was a video editor I would make a montage of all the different people in all the different meetings and presentations telling all the audiences about how important it is to use ‘evidence-based’ programs.

Evidence-Based. Evidence-Based. Evidence-Based.

UGH.

Seriously.

There are two main problems that I have with this sentiment.

First, nothing new or innovative will be evidence-based. A program or project can’t be evidence-based until it’s been implemented and tested and some person with ties to academia finds funding to conduct a study that can be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Twice.

Until that occurs, the program or project can not claim to be evidence-based.

And personally, I think we need to be braver than this if we are going to create and achieve positive change in our communities.

But that has nothing to do with the second problem I have with our apparent obsession with using ONLY evidence-based initiatives.

The reason my eyes roll when I think about that montage of all the professionals declaring the importance of using ‘evidence-based’ programs… is because I don’t see that happening.

In fact, we in Nova Scotia have been utilizing at least one program that is proven to be INEFFECTIVE, and yet we continue to implement it anyway.

It’s only been a few years since my kids participated in D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) with their local elementary school.

But look at what George Mason University Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy has to say about this drug prevention program that began in 1983,

📢 “D.A.R.E. is listed under “What doesn’t work?” on our Review of the Research Evidence.

📢 Rosenbaum summarized the research evidence on D.A.R.E. by titling his 2007 Criminology and Public Policy article “Just say no to D.A.R.E.”

📢 As Rosenbaum (2007: 815) concludes “In light of consistent evidence of ineffectiveness from multiple studies with high validity, public funding of the core D.A.R.E. program should be eliminated or greatly reduced. These monies should be used to fund drug prevention programs that, based on rigorous evaluations, are shown to be effective in preventing drug use.”

By 2007, multiple studies had concluded that D.A.R.E. does not work. But my kids participated in D.A.R.E. in 2015 and 2017 in our local public school.

So, tell me again about how important evidence-based programs are?

Sure, we say its important, but I’ve never gained a client because of our programs' ‘evidence-informed’ status. (Evidence-Informed = one published study vs. Evidence-Based = two published studies) And unlike D.A.R.E., our status is pretty impressive.

In fact, many of the professionals in my imaginary video montage who promote ‘Evidence-Based’ have said ‘no’ to our prevention program.

Even though it is evidence-informed.

It’s hard to figure out why someone who says that it is important to utilize ‘evidence-based’ practices, would choose to say ‘no’ to the ONLY evidence-informed program that is proven effective at training adults to protect children from sexual abuse.

We want to protect children from sexual abuse, don’t we?

And we want to use evidence-based programs, right?

Our Training Program Works. And That’s the Problem.

Consider this inspiring report, from January 2016 and take a moment to let this quote sink in,

“In the year following training, educators increased their reports of child sexual abuse to authorities by 283% as compared with career averaged reports in the year prior to training.”

WHAT?!

Before this, other studies have shown that participants who take this training achieve a measurable behaviour change and take steps to better protect children. Great. It works.

And now, this study says that trained educators increase their reports of child sexual abuse by 283% after receiving the training? Now we know it REALLY works.

Do you see why my eyes roll when I hear people admiring evidence-based status?

If we really want to protect children. And if we really want to utilize evidence-based training…

Then why are there so few trained educators in Nova Scotia?

It is natural to presume that there is a good reason that administrators would say 'no' to bringing this training to their teaching staff.

But, is there a good reason for choosing not to train staff with a globally-utilized, evidence-informed training that is proven to work?

We have to consider that people who work in the ‘system’ (publicly funded, educators, not-for-profit, and social services), and people who have a role in delivering ‘the system’ and its services, don’t necessarily feel confident that ‘the system’ can handle an increase in reports of this magnitude.

Do you think that child welfare agencies in the counties of Nova Scotia are prepared to see an increase in reports of child sexual abuse by 283%?

Do you think that our mental health system is ready to provide support to even more children?

Do you think our legal system is ready to investigate or prosecute 283% more cases?

If you think that the answer is ‘no’, then I’m sure you can appreciate why an evidence-based prevention program might NOT be what the community is looking for.

And that sucks.

If the system needs to break to get fixed, then let’s break it.

We can’t continue to avoid protecting children because we don’t think child welfare agencies, mental health systems and legal systems are ready.

They won’t be ready until they are forced to be ready. Our systems are reactive. They won’t improve until there is no other option.

For all the people who love research (and maybe dislike my dislike of evidence-based) you will appreciate this well researched list of impacts of child sexual abuse. This comes from the Impact of Training for Educators Report and you can click on it to look at the citations. Here’s what the evidence says:

• The medical and social impacts of child sexual abuse on victims are enormous.

• Studies have found that 51% to 79% of sexually abused children exhibit psychological symptoms. (2,3,4,5,6)

• Children who are sexually abused are at significantly greater risk for post-traumatic stress and other anxiety symptoms, (35) depression,(17,18,19) and suicide attempts. (20)

• Behavioral problems, including physical aggression, occur frequently among sexually abused children and adolescents. (21)

• Sexually abused children perform lower on psychometric tests measuring cognitive ability, academic achievement, and memory. (22,23,24,25)

• Girls who are sexually abused are 2.2 times as likely as non-abused peers to become teen mothers. (2)

When we can prevent this from occurring with an evidence-based program, why wouldn’t we?

We’ve learned that training educators results in more reports to authorities. And these authorities can intervene and provide services, and when they do,

“victims of sexual abuse can and do receive intervention services that mitigate many of its negative effects." (16)

We can’t continue to allow children to suffer from child sexual abuse because we are afraid that our support network isn’t strong enough.

That’s our fear. And we can’t let our fear stop us from protecting children.

We have to be willing to test out our support network. Maybe it’s better than we think it is. Maybe it's worse. Either way, it won’t improve if we don’t use it.

I say YES to preventing child sexual abuse and YES to mitigating many of its negative effects.

The evidence says YES.

What about you? Are you convinced? Have you seen enough evidence?

What is it going to take to put this evidence-informed training to use so we can start protecting children?

Will you ask youth-serving organizations, including schools, to implement evidence-informed staff and volunteer training to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse?

Will you help protect children in your organization by bringing our training to your staff and volunteers?

Contact us to find out how easy it can be for your organization to protect children from sexual abuse.

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