Practitioners and researchers working together in an intervention efficacy study

All too often it is assumed that the differing priorities, values and ethics of practitioners and researchers are irreconcilable. This article describes the long, sometimes difficult and ultimately fruitful process of setting up an evaluation of the efficacy of the bereavement support service offered by Cruse Bereavement Care Scotland (CBCS). CBCS invited researchers from Utrecht University's Centre for Bereavement Research and Intervention to work with them to design and deliver a controlled trial that would compare outcomes for recipients of each of its three modes of 'stepped care' with those of a group of bereaved people receiving no care. The proposal raised a number of major ethical and practical issues, which were successfully resolved through open discussion and negotiation, providing a positive example of practitioner/ researcher collaboration in a research endeavour.