Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Both Insider And Outsider: On Conducting Social Work Research In Mental Health Settings, Beth Sapiro, Elizabeth B. Matthews

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The mental health clinic poses unique challenges for social work scholar-practitioners. The familiar setting, the nature of mental health data collection, and the researcher’s clinical training and experience all complicate efforts to maintain a reflexive stance in research. Additionally, conducting research in a clinical environment risks replicating a hierarchical medical model in the research relationship. Using a theoretical framework of critical realism, two doctoral-level scholar practitioners analyzed the advantages and challenges of conducting research in a clinical setting. Audit trails and experiences of peer debriefing from their dissertation research served as the basis for this conceptual analysis. The analysis considers …