in Aotearoa/ New Zealand
SUICIDE and SUPPORT WORKERS
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET
- Questionnaire
Project Title: Suicide and Support Workers in Aotearoa/New Zealand:
Exploring factors that influence frontline mental health staff talking and intervening with suicidal clients.
Dear Potential Participant,
My name is Ursula Bach. I am a doctoral student of the University Of Auckland Department Of Psychology conducting research on mental health support workers and their attitudes, skills, and beliefs around suicide and suicide intervention.
Thank you for your interest in this research!
Purpose: The aim of this project is to understand how different factors (i.e. training, self-efficacy, beliefs, attitudes, religion and knowledge) influence mental health workers’ confidence in asking and talking about suicide with clients.
Who can participate? I am asking individuals who work in New Zealand, and who are currently considered frontline mental health staff (e.g. mental health support workers, mental health community workers, mental health volunteers, or Youth Workers, etc) but are not considered registered health professionals (e.g. nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, or social workers) - to participate in an online questionnaire. After completing the online questionnaire, participants can then choose to participate in a one-to-one interview with the researcher, about these factors and personal experiences.
What will participation involve? Participation will involve completion of an anonymous online questionnaire. The questionnaire should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. The questions being asked will help to answer the research question. I will also ask for some demographic information (e.g. age, ethnicity, gender, education level etc). You are under no obligation to participate. Your participation is voluntary and you may withdraw at any time. If you do not want to continue, you can simply leave this website. If you do not click on the "DONE" button at the end of the survey, your answers and participation will not be recorded. You also may choose to skip any questions that you do not wish to answer. All your responses to the questionnaire will be anonymous. To compensate for time spent you can choose to go into a draw to win one of four $50 grocery vouchers by leaving a contact phone number and name at the end of the questionnaire. These details will not be paired with your answers.
All information collected via the online questionnaire will remain anonymous. That is, your identifying information will not be associated with published results or known to the researcher, or the organisation you work for. If you heard about this study via your organisation, this study will not impact your employment. This study is independent to your place of work and run by the University of Auckland. Qualtrics is the questionnaire platform used and has a privacy and security policy which is available to view on their website (http://www.qualtrics.com/privacy-statement/).
All information in the study will be held in secure storage on University premises for a period of 6 years after publication of research findings. After 6 years post publication all data will be shredded and/or deleted. Participants cannot withdraw their information once it has been submitted online. I will NOT know your IP address when you respond to the Internet survey. The survey will not ask for any information that could lead to revealing your identity. Only the researcher will see individual survey responses, which will be stored electronically in a password protected folder.
Are there any risks to participating? Due to the sensitive topic area of the study, associated risks with completing the questionnaire may include bringing up unpleasant feeling or thoughts, particularly if you have been significantly affected by suicide in the past. Please note following completion of the questionnaire, links to resources will be made available to all participants.
What are the benefits to participating? I hope that sharing the results of this survey will benefit the community. Understanding attitudes, needs, and strengths of Mental Health Frontline Staff will hopefully guide organisations and the mental health sector towards better training, practice, and policy for suicide intervention and hopefully less suicides. Findings from this research may be published online and in academic journal articles and conferences. If you wish to receive a summary of findings, please contact the researcher (Ursula Bach:ubac001@aucklanduni.ac.nz) or visit the website (www.suicidesupportworkers.wix.com/participate).
Thank you for considering participating in this study. If you would like to proceed, please tick an option below, which indicates you have read and understood the information on this screen. The survey questions will appear on the following screen.
If you have any ethical concerns about this research, please contact: The Chair, The University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee, the University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland. Tel: +64 9 3737599 (ext 87830)