Project Title: Evaluating the Keeping Families and Children in Mind Online Resource.
A key component of the National COPMI initiative has been the development of the Keeping Families and Children in Mind Online Resource for workforce training. The resource was developed to help workers increase their knowledge, skill and resources to better engage and work with consumer-parents, families and their children. This questionnaire is part of an evaluation of the resource. With your help we hope to better understand what aspects of the resource are most useful for different types of workers. We are also interested in what types of training are undertaken with the resource.
The information that you provide will be combined with other workers (individual survey responses will be kept by Monash University researchers) and a collated report of findings may be supplied to National and state COPMI coordinators (including coordinators in your region). The information will be used for designing and strategic planning of future training programs and/or other strategic developments. National, state or regional personnel will not be able to identify responses from you or other individuals in any way.
The important aim of the questionnaire is to determine what changes occur in your level of confidence, knowledge, skill and practices as a result of the training. We ask each participant to fill out 3 questionnaires over an approximate 6 month time frame. The first is to be completed just before (pre) training, the second (post) just after training and the third around 4-6 months (follow-up) after training. Our aim is to gather research knowledge about what is important to help improve and develop the workforce in terms of family practice. You should note that the information that you provide might lead to publications in journals, books and/or evaluation reports for the future benefit of others. It may also be used for comparison purposes with other states and countries. Once again individual questionnaire responses will not at any time be identified or published.
What is involved? If you decide to participate, you will be asked to complete a 15 minute paper survey or on line survey. The survey asks for information about your background, the training you undertook and your confidence, knowledge and practices in relation to engaging in family practice. We emphasise that your involvement is VOLUNTARY and to maintain your ANONYMITY please don’t put any personally identifying information on the survey. However we do want to be able to match your three surveys (pre-, post- and follow-up). Consequently, we initially ask you to create a unique identifying code that you complete each time you fill out a new questionnaire. Please note that the anonymous information you provide will be stored for seven years and will held on a password protected computer at Monash University. We do appreciate your involvement as it will help children and families of parents with a mental illness.
Any concerns or questions: contact Associate Professor Darryl Maybery or Dr. Andrea Reupert from Monash University on (03) 5128 1000, or Associate Professor Kim Foster from University of Sydney (02) 9351 0860 or Kylie Eddy from the National COPMI initiative on (08) 8367 0888. Please note: Monash University’s Ethics in Human Research Committee has approved this project. If you have any complaints or concerns about this project you may contact, Executive Officer, Human Research Ethics, Standing Committee on Ethics in Research Involving Humans (SCERH), Building 3e Room 111, Research Office, Monash University VIC 3800, Tel: +61 3 9905 2052 Fax: +61 3 9905 1420. Email: scerh@adm.monash.edu.au. Any issues you raise will be treated in confidence and investigated fully and you will be informed of the outcome.
Dr. Darryl Maybery