Cat Fox, Kate Stulberg and I designed and facilitated a workshop on safeguarding and wellbeing issues in a research context.
This a collaborative workshop sharing wisdom from the experience and insights of people in the room. There were a range of people with different experience, perspectives and different roles too.
The time passed so quickly and we managed to share lots of ideas, thoughts and useful resources too. Kate is continuing this work in her role with the NHS. She initiated the call to the wider community, so do look out for anything she shares as she’s pulling lots of different strands together. Cat also has vast experience and is always open to answer questions on anything user research related!
I run tailored workshops on the art of listening and empathy with teams, which from my experience, are fundamental for research related activity.
As a group, we believe, as research and research-related practitioners that we hold a responsibility and duty of care towards our users, especially in some of the more sensitive areas where we work.
I personally believe, that although one size will never fit all, guidelines and principles offer something of value that can be considered and tailored.
With that in mind, and based on our workshop , here are the principles for safeguarding and wellbeing we created together:
*Anyone can be vulnerable, so be prepared and plan.
*If anyone can be vulnerable or triggered by a topic, be mindful because this goes for your team as well as the researcher and the participant.
*Stop a session if needed, preparedness includes knowing when to stop a session.
*Do a risk assessment beforehand.
*Practice conscious and ethical research - consider when research is not appropriate.
*Be clear on boundaries. Participants can be keen to be listened to and heard, and when they feel safe they will open up and talk. There needs to be a balance here for both the researcher and participant.
*With specialist agencies who support people with specific mental, physical and emotional challenges who encounter people suffering with anxiety, depression, even suicidal thoughts, wellbeing and safeguarding training should be mandatory for researchers.
*Know where the line is when we need to pass over to an expert.Know where to signpost people for support should they require it.
*Learn and train the art of safe empathy, so that you, as the researcher, avoid distress.
We came up with a few more involving the wider team such as:
*Prepare your team, whether observing remotely or in the room on how to respond to
participants respectfully.
*Build team awareness to support the researcher so that they do not feel under
pressure and takeaway the risk of passing the effects of stress on to participants.
*Ensure the team also check in with other following sessions.
Additionally, Kate mentioned it’s worth considering holding the first couple of research sessions together with multiple researchers to ensure consistency, and alignment over approach to participant sensitivities.
Resources
These are some of the resources that were mentioned at the workshop! I’ve been through these and would highly recommend them:
This is an open source template for offering participants with an aftercare support, including signposting trusted sources:
Samaritans hold training many charities go on, called 'conversations with vulnerable people'. Here is a course that's being run in September:
Useful information from the market research society:
Alba N. Villamil wrote an ethical researcher's checlist which includes a section about participant wellbeing: