A central goal of Practice-based Research (PBR) is generating knowledge that is helpful to those delivering and utilizing social work services in a way that respects the potential contributions of practitioners as well as consumers. Additionally, those who conduct PBR studies assume a position of inquiry that is respectful of the very practice that is being researched while simultaneously being open to findings that imply the necessity of change. One can understand PBR best by visualizing the intersection of multiple systems: the agency, the practitioners, the consumers and the academy. PBR requires navigating the complex and different values and realities of these intersecting systems. In this paper we identify and discuss key issues that arise in implementing PBR and use illustrations from our PBR efforts in and with diverse communities.

PBR may take the form of practitioner as researcher and, in some cases, of consumer as researcher. Likewise, it may involve collaboration between researchers and practitioners, consumers, and/or agency leaders. Involvement of the various parties may range from helping to shape a single aspect of the research such as question or instrument formulation or data collection to involvement in every aspect of the research design and implementation including data-collection, analysis and interpretation. An early challenge practice-based researchers face is creating a shared research agenda which fits the needs of the multiple stakeholders involved.

Each intersecting system presents particular challenges to carrying out these various forms of PBR. Agencies have procedural and resource arrangements that must be considered. For example HIPAA rules and procedures make it difficult for outside researchers to gain access to files. Practitioners may need encouragement and training to build their confidence in engaging in research. In some PBR, consumers are engaged as powerful partners in inquiry rather than simply "research subjects" to be studied. The traditional perspectives of the academy and some funders must be managed where traditional randomized experimental designs are frequently more valued than other approaches. Also challenging are the federal requirements for protection of human subjects and Institutional Review Boards which often require every aspect of the research to be planned in advance of initiation leaving little room for adapting freely to changing conditions. An additional concern in conducting PBR is the fine line one must necessarily walk between achieving the objectives of the research and offering help such as advocacy or needed emotional support in the face of consumer reflections on crisis or trauma.

To illustrate the ways in which presenters have confronted these challenges, we draw from our studies focusing on the Chinese elderly in Chinatown in the wake of 911, on the psychosocial stressors and social and emotional development of Caribbean immigrant youth, and on the impact of treatment on dually diagnosed Latina and African-American women who are trauma survivors. We discuss both the successes we have achieved in negotiating the intersection between practice and PBR in and with diverse communities and the questions that still remain.