Supporting educational and youth organisations to deliver self-harm and suicide prevention and postvention: initial survey
Researchers: Abby Russell, Sarah Olin, Franki Mathews, Judi Kidger, Lucy Biddle, Emily Widnall, Sally O’Keefe, Jenny Saxton and Ananya Khera
Before you decide to take part in this study it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. A member of the team can be contacted if you have any questions. Thank you for considering taking part.
Purpose of the research:
Self-harm (where someone hurts themselves physically on purpose) is common among young people. It is a behaviour of concern because of the harm and distress it causes to the young person and others. Research has indicated that some schools, colleges and other youth organisations that work with young people may have concerns about discussing self-harm and what influence this has on young people.
Self-harm is sometimes linked to suicidal behaviour. The suicide of one young person is a traumatic event that affects the entire community. Those who knew the person may experience poor mental health, and they may be at risk of self-harm and even suicide themselves. Policy-makers, teachers and researchers have all called for more information on how to provide the best support to a community where a suicide has happened.
We want to better understand what processes currently take place in secondary schools, further education or sixth form colleges, and youth organisation’s governing bodies to prevent self-ham and suicide, and to support young people and staff when self-harm or a suicide has occurred. Following this initial survey, which will help us to understand current strengths and gaps, we will be conducting further research where we hope to provide additional support to these settings on how to prevent and respond to self-harm and/or suicidal behaviour.
Why have I been approached?
We are interested in talking to you because you work in an organisation or educational setting that involves young people. Your job role may mean you have knowledge about or have come across self-harm or suicidal behaviour among the young people in your organisation, so we have asked you to complete the survey on behalf of your organisation.
Do I have to take part?
No. It is your choice to take part. If you do decide to take part you are also free to change your mind at any time, without giving a reason. If we have approached you via your organisation, your organisation will not be informed if you choose to take part or not. However, if you choose not to take part please consider passing this on to another person in your organisation who has a similar role or knowledge.
What would taking part involve?
You will be given a link to a survey. When you click on this link you will be taken to the participant information sheet (PIS). If after reading the PIS you wish to continue, click the arrow button at the end of the page which will take you to the consent form. You will be asked to complete the consent form before you are able to access the survey. The survey is about any existing policies, procedures and support your organisation provides to young people around self-harm and suicide. You will also be asked questions on: areas that you consider need further support, barriers to providing this, recognition, and communication about self-harm and suicide. This survey does not ask for details on individual cases / incidents which may have occurred.
The survey will take place online, and takes around 25 minutes to complete. There are no right or wrong answers. We will ask you for your name and email address so we can send you the survey results, as well as asking if you may be interested in hearing about opportunities to take part in further research.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
By taking part, you will help us gather valuable information about the current policies, processes and programmes of support provided to young people and adult leaders when required to deal with self-harm and suicide, and gaps in provision. This will inform the next stage of the project, where we develop further evidence and guidelines for schools and other youth settings.
What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
We do not think that there are any risks or disadvantages to taking part. However, if you find thinking about any of these topics upsetting, you can decide not to answer a question, or stop the survey. Sources of support are listed at the end of this information sheet. We will contact you by email to arrange an informal phone call should there be responses in your survey that indicate you or another person may be at risk of harm and are unsupported (please note we will not ask direct questions about this).
What will happen if I don’t want to carry on with the study?
You can change your mind at any time. If you decide part way through the survey to withdraw, there is a ‘quit and withdraw’ option which you can click on at any time and your data will be deleted. If you leave the survey partway through without completing it, you will be able to return and complete it at a later date. For any partially completed surveys, after a period of 7 days we will send one reminder to complete the survey. If, at the end of the study there are any partially completed surveys, these data will be deleted. If we have published results of the study we will be unable to withdraw your survey from the analysis but we will destroy any identifiable information from our secure files.
What will happen to the survey responses I give?
Pseudo-anonymised survey responses will be collated and analysed to build a picture of what your setting and others currently do, and want more support with. This will help focus the next part of the research where we will explore other evidence and generate new guidance for youth settings.
What will happen to the results of this study?
We will publish academic articles in journals, present our findings on the project website, in media and at conferences. However, any information from the survey that could identify an organisation will be pseudo-anonymised and we will not disclose which organisations took part.
We will send you an email copy of our final report on the survey. You will also receive a copy of your completed survey by email.
Taking part in further research
We will be conducting follow-up research in 2024. If you are willing to be contacted again, please indicate this on the consent form. This does not mean you consent to participate in future research but only that you are willing for us to contact you to invite you. If you do not want to be invited to take part in this future research, you can indicate this on the form and the team will ensure you are not contacted again for this purpose.
How will my information be kept confidential?
The University of Exeter processes personal data for the purposes of carrying out research in the public interest. The University will endeavour to be transparent about its processing of your personal data and this information sheet should provide a clear explanation of this. If you do have any queries about the University’s processing of your personal data that cannot be resolved by the research team, further information may be obtained from the University’s Data Protection Officer by emailing: informationgovernance@exeter.ac.uk or at http://www.exeter.ac.uk/ig/
Your information will be kept confidential. All information will be anonymised so that no-one who participated in the study can be identified by anyone outside the immediate study team (researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Bristol). Survey responses will be anonymised by replacing the email address, organisation names and location with an ID number, and any identifying details of people or places mentioned within the free-text responses will be anonymised. The only time we will use your contact details in relation to your responses is if you tell us something that suggests a serious risk to any person (including yourself). At that point, for safety reasons, we will contact you by email to set up a quick phone call to talk through the situation.
All survey data will be identified only by a code, with personal details kept in a secure password protected file on a SharePoint drive at the University of Exeter, with access only by the research team at the Universities of Exeter and Bristol.
Who is organising and funding this study?
This study is being carried out by the University of Exeter and Bristol University along with collaborators from several other Universities in the UK. It has been funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research.
Who has reviewed this study?
The project has been reviewed by the University of Exeter College of Medicine and Health Research Ethics and Governance Committee have granted approval for this project (ethics application ID: 1146439).
Contact for any questions or requests regarding your participation in this research
If you have any further questions, please contact:
Dr Sarah Olin on S.Olin@exeter.ac.uk
Ms Franki Mathews on F.Mathews2@exeter.ac.uk
Dr Abby Russell on A.E.Russell@exeter.ac.uk or by telephone on 01392 722985 or 07814 819 191
Complaints
You can also contact the Mark Tarrant, Chair of the UEMS & HCP REC. Email uemsethics@exeter.ac.uk.
Thank you for your interest in this project
Suggested Sources of Support:
Papyrus UK Suicide Prevention | Prevention of Young Suicide (papyrus-uk.org)
https://youngminds.org.uk/
https://www.giveusashout.org/
https://www.samaritans.org/
Telephone Samaritans: 116 123
https://uksobs.org/