Clinicians’ perspectives on recruiting youth consumers for suicide research
| Pages | 52-62 |
| Date | 14 March 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-11-2015-0039 |
| Published date | 14 March 2016 |
| Author | Susan Knox,Sunny C Collings,Katherine Nelson |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Clinicians’perspectives on recruiting
youth consumers for suicide research
Susan Knox, Sunny C. Collings and Katherine Nelson
Susan Knox is based at
Auckland University of
Technology, Wellington,
New Zealand.
Sunny C. Collings is based at
University of Otago, Wellington,
New Zealand.
Katherine Nelson is based at
Victoria University of
Wellington, Wellington,
New Zealand.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to discuss mental health clinicians’perspectives on recruiting youth
for research exploring the influences of social media on self-harm in young men. Following the low recruitment
of a clinical sample of young men to a qualitative e-mail interview study the authors investigated the barriers
among clinicians who were involved in recruitment.
Design/methodology/approach –Using a face-to-face, semi-structured interview, 13 clinicians were
recruited and interviewed. Thematic analysis was undertaken to explore the issues which impeded a
clinician-led approach to recruitment of young men.
Findings –Online approaches to data collection hold promise as innovative ways to engage health
consumers in research. However in this study the intention to e-mail interview young men increased
clinicians’perceptions of risk and contributed to the original study being abandoned. Inviting clinicians to
recruit consumers to online research raised ethical and clinical dilemmas for clinicians because the potential
risks of consumer participation in such research were unknown.
Research limitations/implications –When involving clinicians as intermediaries in research, it is important
to consider their perspectives on data collection methods and their perceptions of risk.
Practical implications –Findings can be used to inform future recruitment strategies to ensure young
men’s perspectives are present in the literature.
Social implications –There is a need to balance increasing the presence of young men’s voices in the
literature with clinical responsibilities for their best interests as mental health consumers.
Originality/value –The study brings knowledge on perceptions of research risk into sharper focus in the
research literature.
Keywords Male, Mental health, Recruitment, Adolescents, Research barriers
Paper type Research paper
Background
Suicidal behavio urs are a significan t public health conc ern as the prevalenc e of these
behaviours provi des an indicator of me ntal health and soc ial well-being in th e population.
Youth suicide is an im portant focus for pre vention efforts in p olicy and clinical p ractice.
This issue is also a priority for research. While population mental health research seeks to
increase consumer perspectives in the literature, researchers face complex challenges in
engaging consumers in suicide research.
Youth have been identified as under-represented in mental health research (Oliver et al., 2005;
Patel et al., 2003). The reluctance of young men to seek professional help for mental health
problems is acknowledged in the literature (Skegg, 2005). As young men tend not to access
clinical services, they constitute a “hard-to-reach”population and in a service context they are
often described as “slipping through the net”and “service resistant”(Doherty et al., 2004, p. 12).
The authors gratefully
acknowledge Associate Professor
Judith McAra-Couper and Dr
Andrea Gilkison of Auckland
University of Technology who read
the manuscript and provided
critical comments.
PAG E 52
j
MENTALHEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
VOL. 20 NO. 1 2016, pp. 52-62, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/MHSI-11-2015-0039
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