157Practice Development in Health Care, 3(3) 157, 2004 © Whurr Publishers Ltd

CommentAbsolutely critical to the development of health care practice is an understanding ofthe context in which a development is to take place. Indeed, it is this dependence oncontext that very often differentiates practice development and its associated researchfrom purer forms of research. Some forms of research, such as trials, seek very purpose-fully to eliminate any context so that the claim that an outcome is as a result of aclear-cut intervention is stronger. But for some forms of interventions, for some clientgroups, for some health care problems, the context is all-important and to strip it awayis to fail to recognize the complexity of the issue. The focus of the paper that is featuredin this section is a classic example – young men and suicide: a complex social problemwith hard-to-define causal links. And this paper adopts a very creative approach totackling the research. Instead of rejecting the context, it is embraced, and throughaction research it is the context that is under examination. There is of course a needfor all sorts of research – it all depends on what question you are asking – but to askquestions that depend on embracing the context of the issue will allow us to identifysolutions with which we are able to engage and feed into developing practice withconfidence.

Charlotte ClarkeAssociate Editor

?Research and review

3(3) 8/25/04 1:39 AM Page 157