1. Invitation to Participate

You are invited to participate in a research study modelling the influence of attributes (e.g., provider type, setting) on service providers’ conceptualizations of service intensity in children’s mental health. You are invited as you are a service provider (e.g., social worker, psychologist, psychotherapist), for adults, adolescents and/or children, in Canada, Australia, the US and the UK.

2. Why is this study being done?

The purpose of this study is to understand the relative contribution of attributes to service provider's understanding of service intensity and to identify any segments of service providers with different views on the contribution of attributes to service intensity. This study will clarify an ideal operationalization of service intensity and can inform service delivery and larger mental health service delivery policies. This study is a student’s project, which will comprise part of a doctoral dissertation project.

3. What are the study procedures?

For this study, you will be asked to complete an online survey. The start of the survey asks for your consent to participate in the survey. If you indicate your consent and continue with the survey, this is considered your consent to participate in this study. It is expected that this survey will take between 15-20 minutes. The survey will include multiple choice and open-ended questions.

4. What are the risks and harms of participating in this study?

Data collected in this study will be done so using a third-party survey tool, Sawtooth Software, which has servers stored in the United States. As participation is anonymous, and no contact information is collected, participants cannot be contacted should there be a breach in data security at Sawtooth Software. No legal rights are waived by choosing to participate in this study.

5. What are the benefits?

You may not directly benefit from participating in this study, but information gathered may provide benefits to society as a whole which includes learning more about the intensity children’s mental health services, and the attributes that contribute to service providers’ judgements about service intensity.

6. Can participants choose to leave the study?

Participation in this study is voluntary. You may refuse to participate or withdraw from the study at any time throughout the survey. Survey questions can be skipped if you choose not to answer them. As survey responses are anonymous, once the survey is submitted, withdrawal of survey data is not possible.

7. How will participants’ information be kept confidential?

All data collected will remain confidential. No identifiable information will be collected so that individual participants’ anonymity will be protected. The anonymous data will be accessible by the study investigators only. Data are collected using the Sawtooth Survey platform. IP addresses will not be stored or tracked. The online survey will be hosted on Sawtooth’s servers and data will periodically be downloaded by the researchers and deleted securely from Sawtooth servers. Data is encrypted in transit. Sawtooth software will notify the investigators within 72-hours if there is a breach of information.

Once downloaded from Sawtooth, the data will be stored on University local hard drives that are password protected and encrypted. Following University policy, data will be retained for seven years before being securely deleted. Representatives of The University of Western Ontario Health Sciences Research Ethics Board may require access to study records to monitor the conduct of the research.

8. Are participants compensated to be in this study?

No, participants are not compensated to be in this study.

9. Whom do participants contact for questions?

If you have any questions about this research study please contact the Principal Investigator: Dr. Graham Reid (519) 661-2111 ext. 84677, email: greid@uwo.ca or Kimberly Dossett, email: kdossett@uwo.ca

If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant or the conduct of this study, you may contact the Office of Human Research Ethics (519) 661-3036, email: ethics@uwo.ca.