Purpose of the Study:
You are invited to participate in a research study that is being conducted by Arielle Carmel, M.A., under the research supervision of Rachel Piszczor, Psy.D., Associate Professor, both from the Clinical Psychology Department of Midwestern University, Downers Grove. The purpose of this research is to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, practice patterns, and perceived barriers towards trauma-informed care amongst multidisciplinary health professionals. The ultimate purpose of the study is to determine if a webinar-based training on trauma-informed care is effective in promoting various aspects of this important care model.
Who can Participate?:
In order to be eligible to participate you should be 18 years and older and be a currently employed licensed health care professional (i.e. medical, dental, or mental health). In addition, to participate in the study you should currently work at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) within the Midwest. Finally, to participate you should be able to read English and have access to a computer. It is important to note that participation in this study is completely voluntary. If you do not wish to participate in the research study, there is no penalty. If you do not wish to participate in the study but are interested in learning more about trauma-informed care, you will be provided with access to a list of resources.
Study Procedures:
All study participants will be enrolled in the webinar-based study. Prior to the webinar, all participants will be asked to answer questions from two surveys electronically and delivered via the SurveyMonkey platform. You will be asked to answer basic questions regarding your demographics (e.g., age, race, ethnicity, sex, profession), although to protect your anonymity, you will not be asked questions that would easily identify you. In addition to answering questions related to your personal and professional demographics, you will also be asked to answer the study measures, which include answering questions related to what you know about trauma-informed care, your attitudes toward trauma-informed care, any practice you engage in with regard to trauma-informed care, and what you perceive to be barriers (e.g., what gets in the way) to trauma-informed care. All participants will then access the online webinar, delivered by Arielle Carmel, M.A., and Rachel Piszczor, Psy.D., which will take approximately 40 minutes. At the end of the webinar training, all participants will be asked to answer the same self-report measures to assess post levels of knowledge and attitudes. This will also be done electronically and delivered via the SurveyMonkey platform. The entire duration of your involvement will take between 1 hour and 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Confidentiality:
In order to help maintain your confidentiality within the study, no identifiable information will be collected for analysis. You will receive the link to the surveys and webinar training from your respective directors, yet no one that you work with will know who takes the survey and who does not, nor will they have access to any of your survey responses. Further, your survey responses are not connected to you, your email, or any other identifiable information. This allows for you to take the surveys, and the training, and to remain anonymous.