Supporting educational and youth organisations to deliver self-harm and suicide prevention and postvention: a mixed methods study and co-produced guidance (the 4S study)
Researchers: Abby Russell, Judi Kidger, Lucy Biddle, Rowan Streckfuss Davis, Hannah Robinson, Emily Widnall
We would like to invite you to take part in our research project. Before you decide whether or not to participate, we would like you to understand why the research is being conducted and what it would involve for you. Talk to others about the study if you wish. Please ask us questions if anything is unclear.
What is the purpose of the project?
This study is part of a wider project that aims to strengthen the support provided to education and other youth organisations regarding the management of self-harm and suicide risk in young people and response to a death by suicide.
The objective of this study is to co-produce principles of practice for organisations regarding management of self-harm, suicide risk, and appropriate response to a death by suicide.
Why have I been invited to participate?
We are inviting you to take part because you are one of the following;
- A professional or voluntary worker, who provides suicide/ self-harm prevention and/ or postvention support to schools and other youth settings
- A school, college or youth setting staff member (including voluntary workers) with responsibility for planning and/ or delivering safeguarding/ pastoral care
- An international academic or UK based clinician specialising in suicide/ self-harm prevention and/or postvention
We aim to recruit 30-40 participants to each of these three panels.
Do I have to take part?
It is up to you to decide whether you wish to participate in the project. You will have the chance to ask any questions you may have before you participate. If you agree to take part, we will then ask you to sign a consent form. You will have at least one week to think about participation and to return the signed consent form to us. You are free to withdraw your participation at any time, without giving a reason. We will delete your personal details, however, any submitted questionnaire data will be anonymised and so cannot be withdrawn.
What will happen to me if I take part and what will I have to do?
If you take part, you will be a panel member in the Delphi study. You will be asked to fill out three online questionnaires, over three rounds, each taking approximately 20-30 minutes. These will be completed in your own time and on your own device. The questionnaires will combine a series of statements which you will give your opinion on with some open-ended questions.
The three rounds of questionnaires will ask about:
- What constitutes, and what are the components of, good guidance for professionals working with young people around self-harm and suicide prevention and postvention?
- Should prevention and postvention guidance be presented together or separately?
- Is general guidance for all youth settings (schools, colleges, sports clubs, youth clubs etc.), appropriate, or should separate targeted guidance be provided for different settings?
This Delphi study will be used to co-produce ‘gold-standard’ principles of practice around self-harm and suicide prevention and postvention for organisations working with young people.
What are the possible disadvantages and risks involved in taking part in the project?
We can’t foresee any possible disadvantages or risks to you through involvement in this project. The questionnaires will not ask about your own mental health and are therefore unlikely to be triggering. However, there will be information about relevant support services at all exit points of the questionnaires.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There are no direct benefits for you of taking part. However, the findings from this study will ultimately strengthen the support provided to organisations who work with young people, and to young people themselves experiencing self-harm or suicidal thoughts, or a death by suicide in their education or youth organisation setting. You will receive a £15 thank you voucher for each of the three rounds you complete (total £45).
Will me taking part in this project be kept confidential?
Yes, all of the information you provide will be kept confidential. In order to reimburse you for your participation in the survey(s) and to keep in touch about each survey round, we will ask you to provide your name and email address at the beginning of the survey. When your survey data is submitted, we will then allocate you with a participant ID number so no names will appear on the stored survey data. Open-text responses will also be anonymised, meaning anything you have written which could identify you, for example the names of a places or people, will be removed. The downloaded survey data (from each round), labelled by participant ID code, will be stored electronically on a secure password-protected University of Bristol SharePoint folder. Your personal information required for contact (name and email address) will be stored in a separate password protected Excel spreadsheet. Only the study team will have access to these files. Once the study is complete, your personal information will be destroyed, unless you indicate that you would like to be contacted with a summary of the results when available in which case, we will keep the email address you provided us with.. Confidentiality of individuals participating in the Delphi study will be maintained in written or verbal dissemination of the findings.
What will happen to the results of the research project?
Upon completion of the study, anonymised questionnaires will be held in the University of Bristol Research Data Repository where it will be made “Open Data” to support future research. This means that it will be stored in an online database so that it is publicly available.
A key output of this project, using the results of the Delphi study, will be updated principles of practice and guidance for education and youth organisations regarding self-ham and suicide prevention and postvention. These principles of practice will be disseminated widely through our partners and collaborators, utilising networks with Public Health practitioners, the health and education sectors nationwide to disseminate and raise awareness of this output. A QR code will be included for those using the guidance to provide feedback, to collect data on impact.
The results of the research project will be published as an academic paper in a peer-reviewed journal. We intend to share the findings further in a variety of forms, including but not limited to press releases, blogs hosted by organisations such as the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (www.acamh.org), Podcasts, tweets and infographics. All publications will be open-access, and we will highlight to the public how they can access each paper by including the hyperlink to the publications in our dissemination and impact work. You will not be identified as a named individual in any report/publication of this study and any direct quotes used in publications will be anonymised.
What is open data?
Open data means that data are made available, free of charge, to anyone interested in the research, or who wishes to conduct their own analysis of the data. We will therefore have no control over how these data are used. However, all data will be anonymised before it is made available and therefore there will be no way to identify you from the research data.
Why open data?
Open access to research findings and access to data is considered best research practice and is a requirement of many funding bodies and journals. As a large proportion of research is publicly funded, the outcomes of the research should be made publicly available. Sharing data helps to maximise the impact of investment through wider use and encourages new avenues of research.
Who is organising and funding the research?
This study is being carried out by the University of Bristol and University of Exeter along with collaborators from the Universities of Birmingham and Newcastle. It has been funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR).
Who has reviewed the study?
This project has undergone full ethical review by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Bristol.
Further information and contact details
If you would like further information relating to the study, or have any questions about what you are being asked to do, please contact: Judi Kidger (Judi.Kidger@bristol.ac.uk).
If you have any concerns related to your participation in this study, please direct them to the Faculty of Health Science Research Ethics Committee, via the Research Governance Team, research-governance@bristol.ac.uk