community research

Property of Learning Links – 2012

http://www.healthwatch.co.uk/


Course Summary

Unit 1 Unit 2

Collecting DataHow to Plan your Project

Unit 3

Presenting Findings

This course is divided into three units as follows:



Unit 1

Introduction to Community Research

‘How to plan your project’



Introduction

This course is designed to give you the tools you need to conduct community research. During this first unit we will discuss the following:

• What are the benefits to community research?

• What will be the topic of our research?

• Who will I engage with, what will I ask them?



What is a community?

‘A group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings.’



Class Discussion

What do you think are the benefits to using members of the community to decide upon, design and carry out a research project?

Working in groups of two or three, see how many benefits you can come up with.



The benefits of Community Research

Community-engaged research takes place under real world conditions, which increases the applicability of its findings to practical applications that improve human health.



The benefits of Community Research

Meaningful community involvement can also improve the research process itself, and therefore the ultimate findings.



Community Research.............• Helps to develop research questions concerning health issues of concern to the community

• Help in recruiting participants – people more likely to support the research and researchers when they understand the purpose of the research and how the results may affect them

• Improves information gained through community input to produce appropriate, culturally sensitive, accurate and valid opinions and information

• Gives greater opportunity to build trust and respect between organisations and communities. This may lead to a greater exchange of information where the community itself has a voice



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What is my task? How can I prepare for it?

During this phase of Healthwatch, we require members from all areas of the community to choose a title for their research project, we encourage you to ‘Buddy’ up with a colleague so you can share ideas, discuss particular areas you may be interested in.

Using the IT facilities available, spend the next fifteen minutes brainstorming, searching and generating ideas for your topic.

Example: How easy is it for people to access dentistry services in Portsmouth?



Who will I engage with?

Now we have started to think about what we might like to research, we have to start thinking about WHO we would like to engage with.Using your preliminary research question as a guide, lets see how many different community groups we can identify.

Keep in your minds these few pointers:• How can I ensure I engage with a large cross section of the community e.g. We want as diverse a sample as possible.

• To make the information gained as diverse as possible, what age ranges of community members will you be targeting



Time Management & Deadlines

Some questions you may ask yourself during the planning phase of your research project:

• How will I manage my time effectively?• What would be the best time of day to engage with my chosen groups?• How long will it take to gather my information and resources? • How long will I spend analysing my Data?• Do I have a deadline to work to?• What resources will I need?• Will you keep a diary specific to this task? This could make your final report easier to compile.



Unit 1 – Summarising our findings

We should now be able to answer the following questions:

• What is Community Research?• What are the benefits to community research?• What will be the topic of my research project?• Who will I engage with?

After our tea-break we will progress onto Unit 2 – Collecting Data.



Unit 2

Conducting our Research

‘Collecting Data’



Introduction

In this unit we will look at the following:

• What is Data?

• The Eight Principles of Data Protection

• Methods of Data Collection

• Recruitment of Participants

• How to engage with and recruit community members

• Interviewing Tools and Ideas (Communication)



What is Data?

Data is a collection of facts, such as values or measurements.It can be numbers, words, measurements, observations or even just opinions and descriptions.

The information / data that we will be collecting during our research project can placed into two very different sections:

Qualitative and Quantitative



Qualitative Data

Qualitative data is ‘descriptive’ – It describes something.

This information is ‘subjective’, it represents the thoughts and opinions of someone.

Qualitative data can be difficult to interpret, it is more time consuming to analyse but the results at the end will be broader and more diverse than just a quantitative approach.

e.g. Why do you think there are delays in Hospital Treatment?



Quantitative Data

Quantitative data is numerical information.

It usually relates to facts and figures, compared to Qualitative data, Quantitative data can be easy to represent, it can show trends and it can be collected in a non face to face way e.g. Printed questionnaires.

It could be that you receive a lot of Qualitative data, and after analysis decide to find out how many other people feel the same way, this can then be collected as quantitative data.

e.g. How long did you have to wait for your initial hospital appointment.



What information do we want?

When gathering information, we only want to ask specific questions. During our planning phase these questions need to be generated.

By including too large a range of either questions or options, the data can easily become difficult to represent or interpret. Remember your timescales!

Do we want numerical data? Opinions and thoughts? Numbers or figures? I would suggest you re-visit your research project aims and pick questions specific to that area.



Sensitive Information

We will be asking people to provide information regarding health related issues.

For most people this is a very personal and sensitive subject, so we will have to be very careful when we present this.

A community member must ‘trust’ us not to break this confidentiality and they may have concerns about who, or where this information is going.

This relationship between you and them must at all times be build around a mutual understanding.



Data Protection

As we have seen, the information we gather may be personal and sensitive. We have to adhere to The Data Protection Act 1998, which is an act of Parliament which outlines how we should process personal information from members of society.

This is a good tool to understand, as people may have questions surrounding who will see their information, you can put people at ease by mentioning this. This will also help you build rapport with your audience.



The Data Protection Act 1998

…is a piece of national legislation that…governs how information about us is held.



Holding Personal Data

Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully

Personal data must be obtained for specified and lawful purposes

Personal data must be adequate, relevant and not excessive

Personal data must be accurate and up to date

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Holding Personal Data

Personal data must not be kept any longer than is necessary

Personal data must be processed in accordance with the right of the individual

Personal data must be kept securely

Personal data must not be transferred out of thecountry without adequate protection

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Methodology – How will I collect my Data

This is one of most important aspects of your planning phase. HOW you are going to collect your Data will depend on your chosen topic.

Group Exercise – How many different ways of gathering / collecting information can you identify in your groups?



Data Collection

Questionnaires – Are a good source of both qualitative & quantitative data

Surveys – If conducted with random members of the public, pay attention to time constraints – It may be beneficial to use these to gather quantitative data

Focus Groups – These are a fantastic way to network, build relationships with the community and are an excellent source of qualitative data. These can cover perceptions, beliefs, opinions and attitudes towards a topic.



Data Collection

Reports – It could be that you are conducting some research yourself, or existing data is available to you, if so how will you relate this to your research question / topic?

Social Media – Have you considered Chat Rooms, Facebook Pages (Excellent and Free), Blogs or even Twitter?

Remember: The questions you ask will invoke an answer from your participant, try to be impartial when designing these, as you may inadvertently skew the result in a particular direction



Recruitment of participants & accessibility

How will you go about recruiting people to take part in your project?

When will your target audience be available, what are the age ranges, what would be an appropriate method based on their demographic?

Working in your same groups see how many ways you can come up with



Recruitment of participants

Historic studies show that the reason community engagement works is because the community feel their voice is being heard and that they can see the results around them.

Taking the time to explain the benefits of Healthwatch or why you have chosen the topic, will interest the participant.

Will there be some form of incentive for them to take part, have a look at the Healthwatch printed flyer, has this got an incentive for people to show interest?



Sample sizeDuring the planning phase you will need to decide how many people you will engage with.

A Census is where you ask everyone in a particular group to take part e.g. You go to a local church group and ask every attendee to fill out a survey. While this approach will produce the most Data, you have to think about practical issues, timescales, likelihood of participation.

A Sample, differed as it is a pre-defined amount, e.g. I will aim to engage with 1/5 people, or 20% of a particular group. This may be more achievable.

Remember: The larger the sample the greater the range of information. Have we seen this on TV adverts recently?



Interviewing Tips

When engaging with people, we can use a number of different techniques to encourage the interview / conversation to flow.

Although basic these ‘tools’ will help you put your target audience at ease, help you gain the best quality data possible and hopefully leave a positive and lasting impression upon the people you engage with.



Two Way Communication

SENDER

ENCODES THOUGHTS

SENDER SENDS

RECEIVER RECEIVES

RECEIVER DECODES



Interviewing Tips

When planning our questions for our project, we will need to look at the type of question we are asking.

Using a mixture of ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ Questions:

Open – “Why do you think it was difficult to get an appointment”

Closed – “Did you get an appointment easily”

As you can see ‘open’ questions invoke a response from the subject that is unique to them, this leads to a flow of information, this is very much qualitative data.

Closed questions usually lead to a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ situation, which is good if you want specific information, quantitative.



Interviewing Tips

People are encouraged when they feel they are being listened to or understood, these techniques really help the interview to flow, putting the subject at ease.

Active Listening – Showing the subject you understand by the use of NVC’s, Gestures and prompts.

Starter Questions – Can you prompt the subject into a new line of questioning? Or can you ask them to elaborate on information provided so you can gain more detail?

Paraphrasing – You repeat back certain key points to show your understanding.

Remember to thank them afterwards for their time



Diverse customer needs

Keep in mind that all customers:• are individuals• have differing needs and expectations• may be from different countries, religions & age groups

Personal values are formed as you grow up and are affected by:• Birthplace• Where you live• Upbringing• Friends• Family



Rapport Building and Networking

Rapport – This is then two or more people connect with each other, they feel they are on the same wavelength.

Techniques to build Rapport:

Mirroring – You match either their tone of voice, body language (positioning, the way they are sat, eye contact)

Empathy – Understanding something from another’s point of view (understanding, not necessarily agreeing)

In order to cultivate lasting relationships you will need use as many techniques as possible.

Will you offer to feedback information to them / update them?



Interview task

Working as individuals I would like you to come up with five questions which may or may not be centred around your research question. I would like you to include four ‘closed’ questions and a final ‘open’ question.

Working your way around the room, please interview the other candidates. We will reflect on our findings afterwards.

Remember: Tone of voice, positioning, engagement, rapport, paraphrasing, prompting,active listening and please thank your participant.



Unit 3

‘Presenting our Findings’



Writing the Final Report

We have looked at WHO we will be engaging with, we then looked at HOW we will go about accessing that information.

Now we need to look at WHAT our findings are.

When we are presenting our final report, we always have to have our research question in the forefront of our minds.




What audience will be viewing our information? How can we make it accessible to all?

In what way can we present our information.

Working in groups, see if you can come up with five different ways of presenting our information




The University of Portsmouth has produced a fantastic pro-forma for you to structure your final report on.

This is a chance for you to bring everything together and present your findings.

How you choose to represent your information is your own decision, however you may wish to follow the flow that the template outlines.

Will you use text? Charts (Pie, Bar, Line)? Data Sheets?




Understanding our results is very important, did we answer our research question?

What decisions did you make along the way, how did this help / hinder your project?

Do we need a larger sample? Could this study be mimicked in other areas.

Critical Analysis – What went well, what didn’t. Did you encounter any barriers along the way, how did you overcome them.



Presenting our findings

We would love for you to come back in a month’s time to present your findings.

This half a day session will bring all our projects together, you will have an opportunity to present or share your thoughts and findings. I will be available to give any assistance you may need in concluding your report.

We will promote feedback, which will flow to Healthwatch and Portsmouth City Council, as this is a pilot scheme you may be contributing to moulding an entire new way of promoting Healthwatch in the community.


community research

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