Clinicians’ perspectives on recruiting youth consumers for suicide research

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.