Ethnography and the Collaborative Process: Why Route 28 Is A Meaningful Metaphor

Background and Purpose: A long term, embedded ethnography is in place to describe and assess the process and outcomes of collaboration among university based researchers and community based mental health providers. The investigators sought to identify, reflect on, and adjust the dynamics and content of their work together. The goals of the participant observation are to chronicle the process, and to contribute to the participants' engagement with and understanding of the collaboration. Methods: The data collection consisted of participant observation at meetings between the collaborators, regular depth interviews with key individual participants, archiving communication via email, participation in the design and analysis of research projects, ongoing debriefing with the principal investigators, and periodic reports of findings and observations to the group. Field notes, archival materials such as meeting agendas, and any additional contextual items form the basis for inductive analysis. A significant methodological challenge has been conducting the work from a distance, and with limited time in the field. Results: The collaborative process has evolved differently than envisioned. The main objectives of integrating collaborative research into the provider agency, and informing the researchers of the exigencies and valued topics for research with the agency, have been achieved. The partners have developed a vocabulary for constructive communication, shared commonsense views of their collaborators, and an informed understanding of their limits and abilities to continued work together. A significant obstacle to integrating research into the organization is the speed with which the providers pose questions and desire to act, and the time consuming and cumbersome process of launching rigorous research. The research partners have developed community provider partnerships beyond their original collaboration, and are now engaged in research with a broader provider community. Conclusions and Implications: Viable community-academic research partnerships require a significant commitment of time, flexibility, and persistence to succeed. The challenges include: managing unexpected interpersonal differences, the differing time demands of research and service provision, the financial pressures for the agency to deliver services and the researchers to obtain funding, and setting priorities for future research opportunities.