Cocaine-Abusing Methadone Patients: Can COPES Lead to an Appropriate Intervention?

Providing evidence-based practice is an evolving skill that uses current and relevant literature to guide practice with client populations. A critical component of evidence-based practice requires a clinician to evaluate and refine individual practice around the needs of a specific, identified population. This article describes and illustrates the use of a tool, Client-Orientated, Practical, Evidence-Search Questions (COPES), created by Leonard Gibbs (2003) to aide practitioners in evaluating the effectiveness of their practice. Using the author's personal fieldwork experience and evidenced-based literature, this article outlines the process needed to formulate, research, and implement a specific, evidence-based COPES question.