CURRENT PROJECT

Mental Health Supports for Youth from
Underserved Communities: A Silver Linings Foundation Needs Assessment

About the Project

At Silver Linings Foundation we are committed to serving our community, but we know that not everyone has knowledge of or access to our services.  As an organization that aims to be inclusive, it's important to us to develop and adapt our services to be inclusive, accessible, and culturally sensitive.

Thanks to the City of Calgary’s Capacity Building and Emerging Issues Grant, Silver Linings Foundation is seeking to interview community organizations, service providers, and youth on how we can make our services more inclusive and accessible for youth from underserved communities. This needs assessment project aims to identify the needs and wants for mental health and eating disorder resources and supports for equity-deserving youth, particularly from 2SLGBTQIA+ and racialized populations. Furthermore, this project is focused on initiating conversations with diverse community organizations that work with youth in low income, racialized, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities to co-design resources on eating disorder awareness and support. 

Process of Participation 

As a participant, 

Potential Risks

Potential Benefits

Participating in this research may benefit you directly if you seek resources or support services within Calgary that have been changed due to the outcomes of this research. Your participation in this study will be beneficial to all youth and families who seek support and resources for mental health and eating disorders from Silver Linings Foundation and any 

Compensation 

As compensation for your participation in this research you will receive a $25 gift card.

Confidentiality 

All information from participants will be kept confidential. The principal researcher, Kaci Switzer, is the only person who will have access to your personal data. No recordings, transcripts, or any other information provided by you will ever be shared unless otherwise consented to and agreed upon by both parties. Participants can choose how they wish to be identified in any documentation that results from their participation. After the interview, you can indicate whether SLF may include excerpts from your interview in internal documents and/or external published materials, and if so, how you want to be identified. Nevertheless, the stories we tell can sometimes allow others to identify us. Please keep this in mind when deciding what to talk about in the interview. 

Interview recordings will be kept on the Silver Linings Foundation Google Drive until December, 2023, after which they will be deleted securely. SLF will store de-identified transcripts and a document that recorded your consent to participate in their Google Drive until December 2028. Any handwritten notes that may be taken during the interview will be transcribed digitally, after which hard copies will be shredded. Notes will also be kept in Google Drive. 

You can read about Google’s privacy policy here.

As the interviews are being conducted over Zoom, some information may be stored on the Zoom platform, such as the auto-transcription and recording of the interview. After interview recordings are saved in Google Drive, they will be deleted from Zoom. Please review the Zoom privacy statement, here.

I uphold your confidentiality with the utmost importance. I do not believe in authority interventions unless absolutely necessary and I operate under an ethical assumption of self-responsibility. This means, that any information you share during our interview that may not be pertinent to our project is held confidentially and will not be shared with anyone else, except in circumstances where the health, life, or safety of yourself or a third party, a community, or the general population is deemed to be at immediate risk, in which case it is my ethical and legal duty to report the disclosure to the appropriate authorities. The determination of immediate risk will be conducted by Kaci Switzer and Marlies van Dijk. In cases where this cannot easily be determined by ourselves, we will consult a third party confidentially before reporting. For example, I have a duty to report any disclosed or suspected child abuse. However, the law does not require me to report past abuse. If I suspect that there is a chance the abuse could still be occurring, then I will contact Child and Family Services for further assistance on how to handle the situation. Confidential information will only be shared if the third-party organization determines that it is a matter of safety.  

Participation and Withdrawal

Participating in this interview is voluntary. Once the interview has begun, if you change your mind about participating, you may simply leave the interview. If you choose to leave, I will ask whether you want to withdraw your conversation up to that point or include the interview in our data. If you want to withdraw your contributions after you’ve participated, you may email Kaci by November 15, 2023, and they will remove your data from the study. After that date, your contributions will be recorded in our analysis. If you decide to withdraw from the study after the interview has begun or withdraw your data from the study, you will still receive compensation for your participation. 

Research Results

We aim to finalize our research results by January, 2024. If you wish to be contacted with results and how we plan to use them to implement change, you can indicate this at your interview and someone will contact you in the new year. 

Questions or Comments 

If you have questions about participating or need more information about this research, please contact Kaci at Kaci@SilverLiningsFoundation.ca 

CONSENT

Before the Interview:

• Have you received a written copy of this letter? 

• Yes/No

• Do you have any questions about participating in this study? Do you need any more information to make your decision about participating?

• Yes/No

• You have the choice about whether you want to participate or not. Do you understand that participating in this study is voluntary? 

• Yes/No

• Do you understand that, once you agree to participate, you can still withdraw at any time up until November 15, 2023?

• Yes/No

• Do you agree to participate in the interview?

• Yes/No 

After the Interview:

• Do you consent to Silver Linings Foundation storing and using your data received in this interview for the project specified in this Letter of Information? 

• Yes/No