research issues 2

Bereavement Research Forum

2. What is the place of research in an organisation offering care to the bereaved? 2.1 Reasons for undertaking research Some reasons for undertaking research might include: * To test the validity of theory * To evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches or techniques * To demonstrate e.g. to a funding body the effectiveness of the counselling/care approach * To enable an individual practitioner to monitor his/her work * To allow a practitioner to resolve a ‘burning question’ * To obtain a Masters degree or a PhD, thus increasing the skill base of the individual and organisation * To let others know about a particularly interesting piece of work * To establish academic credibility * To enhance the professional status of counsellors/carers in relation to other professional groups ( McLeod,1993, p.176) 2.2 The need to ensure good practise and accountability In all areas of service provision, public, private and voluntary, the need to ensure good practice and to be publicly accountable for the quality of care and the good use of funding is essential. Transparency in audit is therefore not negotiable. At this level the collection of statistics and their analysis is an essential part of understanding the nature of a client group and the work that is undertaken by practitioners whether they are paid or volunteers. Similarly the prioritising and allocation of finance to sustain the work is an ongoing area of scrutiny in a team/agency. Systematic justification of a service is a research activity. 2.3 Assessing need and responding appropriately Counselling, and other forms of care offered to the bereaved, involves a process of finding out’. It is a way of being available to clients, engaging with and assessing their needs, and deciding upon an appropriate therapeutic response. In undertaking this process practitioners are carrying out a form of research. While few practitioners would describe their work as research it is clear that their therapeutic skills have much in common with the sensitive investigative skills used in formal research activities. A bereavement service/organisation continues to accumulate knowledge and expertise from this aspect of its own activity: a) about clients and client groups b) about the nature of the therapeutic process Supervision acts as a supportive and regulatory function in this form of ‘finding out’. Silverman (2000) describes how researchers and clinicians are parts of separate cultures of thinking – however their human experience unites them. She makes an argument for both cultures to ‘recognize their dependence on each other and on their own personal experience to guide and inform their work’. This leads us to examine how formal research structures can be integrated into organisation practice. 2.4 A more formally developed research strategy Research that takes place beyond that identified above becomes an issue for specific discussion and policy making within an organisation or team. Deciding a research strategy is the joint responsibility of those who carry a management function (e.g. a management committee, team leaders etc), usually in consultation with those practitioners whose area of work is a likely focus for research. There are different motivations for research. The need for research may be generated by * internally driven study priorities (e.g. a need to know more about a group currently under-using the Service) * the training needs of staff (e.g. for a Masters degree) or * an agreed host to an external agency or individual who has been granted access to clients, staff or the organisation (e.g. a national study of a particular client group).