Bereavement Research Forum Research in organisations providing bereavement care Guidelines developed by the Bereavement Research Forum 1. Introduction 1.1 BRF purpose and aims 1.2 Background to the paper 2. What is the place of research in an organisation offering care to the bereaved? 2.1 Reasons for undertaking research 2.2 The need to ensure good practise and accountability 2.3 Assessing need and responding appropriately 2.4 A more formally developed research strategy 3. Deciding whether to engage in research 3.1 What is the role of research and who owns it? 3.2 What is needed to support research? 4. Summary References Appendix One An Organisational Protocol for Undertaking Ethical Research Research in organisations providing bereavement care 1.1 BRF purpose and aims The main purpose of the Bereavement Research Forum is to provide opportunities for the discussion, promotion and development of bereavement research by:  * Providing a forum to encourage and facilitate future research    into bereavement  * Exploring research issues such as methodology and ethics  * Disseminating bereavement research findings to a wide    audience  * Promoting the application of research into policy and practice. 1.2 Background to the paper The intention of this paper is to support practitioners and researchers in the planning, undertaking and use of research in their organisational contexts. The Bereavement Research Forum Steering Committee is committed to developing research guidelines for organisations and individual researchers undertaking bereavement research. Although, at the moment, we are not pursuing any research projects as an organisation, members and others attending Symposia meetings do raise dilemmas for which Bereavement Research Forum might provide considered practical and ethical guidance. The following guidelines are based on a Guidance paper, written in 2002, by Linda Machin (Chair of the Bereavement Research Forum from 1999 to 2002). It was developed as guidelines for Bereavement Care (North Staffordshire), and incorporates the work of Colin Murray Parkes (1995) on bereavement research. These guidelines need to be considered in the light of practitioners’ own existing professional regulations, and are complements to well established research procedures e.g. those determined by ethics committees. Readers who are looking for information on approaches to bereavement research including methodology, design and measurement, as well as a discussion of ongoing challenges, are referred to the Handbook of Bereavement Research (Stroebe et al, 2001). by Linda Machin CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION Bereavement Research Forum