Employing Community Participative Research Methods to Advance Service User Collaboration in Social Work Research

Engaging service users in social work professional education and research has become an expected aspect of social work. While ensuring meaningful engagement with service users in education needs further attention, this article will focus on service user participation in research. The National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) in Ireland funded research to investigate the experience of drug problems in three Dublin communities. The research sought to engage service users as both participants and as co-researchers. The research resulted in profiles of three communities and identification of a set of community drug indicators. This article seeks to contribute to the development of research methodologies that can enhance service user involvement through strategies informed by a community participatory approach. It will consider the benefits and challenges of employing community participatory methodologies to engage service users. This involves challenging the concept of service user. It explores collaborative methodologies with community partners that address some of the service user control issues in social work research.