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Letter to eligible home visitors: Information on participating in a study (p. 2 of 3)
A. PROTECTING STUDY PARTICIPANTS
Some of the basic "rules" (or principles) of research are:
participants must be well-informed about a research study before they agree to take part;
taking part must be voluntary (without pressure or coercion from supervisor, workmates, the
researcher, or anyone else);
and
people don't have the right to know who in their organization or community is (or is
not) taking part in a study.
To ensure these principles are followed, this study has been designed in the following ways:
1. Your organization has agreed to these rules/principles (for details, see p. 1 of the Information and
Consent Form).
2. Everyone who is interviewed must first read and sign an Information and Consent Form and
return it to the researcher.
3. If you agree to take part in the study, but then change your mind, you can withdraw from the study
(as long as the data analysis phase has not already begun).
4. I will respect the privacy and confidentiality of the volunteers and staff who do take part, and
those who don't take part. I will not share names with anyone, inside or outside of your organization.
5. To protect privacy and ensure voluntary participation, your Agency Contact Person will
not send me a list of eligible staff and volunteers. Interested home visitors will contact me
directly (for more info., see Section B, below).
6. If you have any questions, you can either contact me (the researcher) directly, or you can ask your
Agency Contact Person for this study.
B. PUTTING YOUR NAME FORWARD TO TAKE PART IN THE STUDY
There are two ways that participants can be selected for this study.
1. Individual home visitors who want to take part in the study can contact me directly, by email or
telephone. I will interview the first two eligible volunteer visitors, and the first eligible
paid home visitor, who contact me from each program. After that, if additional home
visitors contact me, they will be asked if they are interested in being an alternate. This ensures
that I am not making subjective decisions about who to interview.
2. The group of volunteer visitors or paid visitors from your program can meet together (preferably
with no one else present, for privacy reasons). The group can determine which home
visitor(s):
i) best meet the eligibility criteria (above), and
ii) have the time and interest to take part.
The group should also designate an alternate, who can take part if someone has to withdraw.
The main drawback to this approach is that everyone who is present will know whose names
are going forward. If knowing the names is a problem for anyone in the group, this method is
not recommended.
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