Client documents in social work with adults as research data : scoping review of opportunities and challenges

Documentation is an integral part of social work. It is a tool in client work, and it also has an accountability perspective. Documentation helps the practitioners to evaluate their own work and makes it possible to assess the impact of work and develop practices. The use of client documents for research purposes has been identified as an option, but it is still quite rare. Moreover, little attention has been paid to social work with adults in this context. The development of electronic information systems (EIS), including structured forms, presents new research opportunities. Through documentation, it is possible to make tacit information visible and obtain evidence, for example, about the…