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Chapter 10: Conclusion

10.1 Introduction

This final chapter commences with the researcher’s reflection on his journey in undertaking the study (Section 10.2). This reflection is not a sentimental one, but a critical observation of the changes experienced by the researcher through discovering knowledge about the case and undertaking the study. Section 10.3 discusses the methodological rigour of the study and the steps the researcher undertook to ensure it. Section 10.4 outlines and discusses recommendations arising from the study in relation to four domains: research, practice, education and policy. Sections 10.5 and 10.6 identify the study’s methodological limitations and strengths, before the chapter concludes by outlining the role of the researcher in relation to the study (Section 10.7). 10.2 Researcher’s Reflection Only a retrospective appreciation of one’s earlier naivety can clarify how much a process of research has illuminated. Viewed retrospectively, the gaps in the researcher’s awareness at the outset of the study were very significant indeed. His practical knowledge of working remotely had imbued him with an illusory confidence in his knowledge of the case. At the outset, the researcher believed that direct exposure from working in the field of enquiry was the richest and most intimate experiential basis from which to make commentary and achieve understanding. This naivety at the commencement of the study instilled in the researcher a belief that the findings were already known. The study unexpectedly became a process of actualisation. As a remote area mental health educator, the researcher had ‘been there and done that’. In the course of his experience in remote Australia, he had seen, heard and witnessed