SAMHSA PSA Recovery Attachment D - Focus Group Facilitator’s Guide

Attachment D

Focus Group Facilitator’s Guide

INTRODUCTION [10 minutes]

• Hello. Welcome! Thank you for taking time from your day to come here to talk with us.

• My name is _______________, and I will facilitate our conversation today.

• The sponsor of today’s focus group values your opinions, ideas, suggestions, and concerns about living a life in recovery and accessing resources related to recovery. parenting with today’s challenges and we will evaluate an idea they have to address some of those challenges. Your participation in this discussion is of great importance to the sponsor because based on your suggestions they will be able to improve on the ideas you see.

• Even though I will be facilitating today’s conversation, I have nothing invested in this sponsor or the specific ideas we will be discussing. I am only interested in capturing your honest feedback to better inform the sponsor’s messaging and materials development process.

DISCLOSURES AND GUIDELINES

The session will last approximately 90 minutes (about 1 hour and 30 minutes).

You have signed a Release and Consent Form telling you that we are digitally recording this session so that the information can be used to accurately reconstruct our conversation and to assure that we capture all of your ideas.

Your privacy is important to us. Your names will not be used in reports and nothing you say will be attributed to you. A report will be written and only your opinions, suggestions, feelings, or experiences will be included. We are most interested in what was said, not who said it.

We want to hear about your opinions, comments, and experiences. On this very personal topic there are no good or bad answers, only comments. So please feel free to add a different perspective to what someone else said; we want to have several points of view.

Please speak one at a time, and loud enough to be heard.

I will move quickly, sometimes, from one topic to another to make sure that we touch on the many topics we need to cover.

Please take this time now to shut off or silence your cell phones. We cannot have the distraction of cell phones during the discussion.

Any questions?

RESPONDENT INTRODUCTIONS [5 minutes]

So, I am asking each of you to share:

• First name only

• One topic related to recovery resources you hope we will address in our conversation today.

BACKGROUND – Recovery [15 minutes]

Let’s talk for a moment about the concept of recovery.

1. What does the term recovery mean to you?

2. What do you think the process of recovery looks like?

3. What are the most difficult aspects of recovery?

1. Prompt: This could be about the process of recovery itself or how you live life in recovery?

4. Who are people you can talk to about substance use and recovering from addiction?

Feelings of Stigma or Discrimination

5. What types of discrimination have you experienced during the recovery process? In what ways have you experienced stigma while in recovery

Resources

6. Describe how you felt when you began recovery? Did someone help you? Did you use online resources?

7. What type of information do you feel might have helped you during this process?

1. Prompts:

   1. Who informed you about the recovery process?

   2. How did you use the information?

   3. Did that change as you became more informed?

8. From those resources you mentioned, which resources do you feel are most important?

   1. Prompts:

      1. What makes you say that?

      2. Are there any that are hard to access?

      3. What experiences did you have during the recovery process that made you feel discriminated against or stigmatized for having had a substance use problem?

9. How would you propose to improve access to recovery resources? Do you feel that they are hard to locate, or limited due to geographical area? What steps could you currently take in your area if you were in need of recovery assistance?

10. If you could invent a support system for others who are starting their recovery journey, what would it look like?

REACTION TO CONCEPT AND MATERIALS (55 minutes)

Now we are going to look at an idea for some materials that deal with the process of recovering from substance use addiction.

• I would like to start out by walking you through some potential materials

• I would like to know about your thoughts on the concept, but not on the little things. For instance, please don’t be distracted if you don’t like a person’s clothes or expression. The final materials will take into account your feedback.

[POLL: Which tagline/graphics did you prefer? Which best represents life in recovery?]

PRESENT MATERIALS AND ASK:

1. UNDERSTANDING, RECALL, AND APPEAL

• Please, describe the concept behind the materials in your own words.

• What attracted your attention in a positive way? What attracted your attention in a negative way?

• What images are the most memorable? Which terms or phrases stood out from the materials?

  • PROBE: What specifically catches your attention?

• Tell us what is confusing or unclear? Was there anything that just didn’t make sense to you?

• What do you think would make the materials more compelling?

• Is this topic important to you, your community, or anyone you know? Tell me some reasons why you say that.

  • PROBE: What topics do you believe will be more appealing for your peers?

• What new insights did you gain from viewing/hearing this conversation/topic?

2. IDENTIFICATION AND RELEVANCE

• Who do you think these materials are for?

• What makes you think that? Explain?

• How do you think [the main audience] would react?

• How do you think the drug/substance use issues shown affect you and your peers? Tell me some reasons you think drug/substance use recovery issues are important or not important issues in your community?

• What else would you have liked it to discuss? Is there anything you want more information on?

3. ACCURACY

• What specifically in the ________materials are especially realistic?

  • PROBE: Did the script remind you of any person or situation you’ve known or heard about?

• What specifically in the ________materials aren’t realistic?

• Was there anything in ________ materials that troubled you in any way? What? Why?

  • PROBE: Any particular words or phrases?

• What, if anything, was the most authentic part of these materials?

PROBE CREATIVE ELEMENTS AND SPECIFIC MESSAGING OF THE MATERIALS.

[MODERATOR: SHARE MATERIALS AGAIN IF NEEDED OR REQUESTED]

The goal of this campaign and other accompanying materials is to help young adults better understand and harness the power of the people and resources in their communities to recover from drug/substance addiction. With this in mind:

• How did the materials do well in communicating the intended goal/message?

• What could the materials have done better?

• What other recommendations would you make to better communicate the intended goal/message in these materials?

CLOSING AND ADJOURNMENT (5 minutes)

• Thanks for coming tonight and providing your opinions.

• Your comments have been very helpful and insightful.

• Goodnight and have a great day tomorrow.

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