Appendix D_Informal Contacts Consent Statements

OMB No: 0906-0098

Expiration Date: 7/31/2027

Appendix D. Consent statements

D1: Consent statement for families who participate in focus groups

Voluntary Consent to Participate in the ADAPT-HV Study: Parent/Caregiver Focus Group

Study Description and Purpose

We invite you to participate in the Assessing and Describing Practice Transitions Among Evidence-Based Home Visiting Programs (ADAPT-HV) study. The ADAPT-HV study seeks to identify, develop, study, and share evidence-informed resources and strategies that early childhood home visiting programs like [PROGRAM NAME] may use to strengthen home visiting services, and, ultimately, achieve better outcomes for children and families.

In this study, we want to learn how early childhood home visiting programs use informal contact strategies to improve services and promote families’ engagement in visits. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is overseeing the ADAPT-HV study in collaboration with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The Policy & Research Group (PRG) and Mathematica, two research organizations, are conducting the study.

What Does Participation Involve?

As a participant, you will be asked to join a discussion group called a focus group. The group will be led by a researcher from the ADAPT-HV study. During the focus group, the researcher will ask you and the others in the group about your involvement with [PROGRAM NAME] and your recent experiences with strategies used by your [HOME VISITOR TITLE] to contact you outside of formal visits. This discussion will last no longer than one hour.

Your participation in the focus group is completely voluntary. If you choose to participate, you can skip any questions you do not want to answer, and you can leave the focus group at any time. During the focus group, we may ask you a question directly in an effort to make sure we hear from everyone, but you can choose not to respond to any question. There are no consequences if you do not want to participate or if you leave the focus group early. Your choice whether or not to participate will not affect the services you receive in any way.

Risks and Benefits

There are no known risks to your participation in this focus group. Although you may not see direct benefits associated with your participation, the information we gather will be used to improve home visiting services in the future. As a token of our appreciation, we will offer you a $40 gift card after the focus group ends.

Privacy

Whatever you talk about in the focus group will be kept private, except if you say something that suggests you are very likely to harm yourself, that you are planning to hurt another person or child, or that someone is likely to harm you. We will use the information shared in this discussion to write a summary of what we learned, but no identifiable information or individual responses will be shared. If you agree to participate, information that other people share in the discussion must also be kept private. The researchers cannot fully guarantee the privacy of the participants in a focus group setting and we are therefore relying on you and the other participants to not share anything discussed outside the group.

We would like to audio-record the focus group to make sure we have an accurate record of what participants share. We will not share the recording with [PROGRAM NAME] or anyone outside our study team. We will store the recording in a secure location, and our study team will destroy it at the end of the study. No one will hear the recording except for researchers and the person who transcribes it. We will also store any notes from our conversation in a secure location for use by researchers and will destroy the notes at the end of the study.

How Will the Information be Used?

The study team will share information with HRSA and ACF staff to help them understand how early childhood home visiting programs could strengthen the services they provide through the use of informal contact strategies to promote families’ engagement in visits. We will use information from the focus group, along with data collected throughout the study using other instruments, to write a summary of what we learn.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about the study, please contact Teresa Smith at The Policy & Research Group ([email protected] or (225) 281-3783).

If you have questions about your rights as a research volunteer, you can call Health Media Lab Institutional Review Board at (202) 549-1982.

Public Burden Statement: This information collection is part of the Assessing and Describing Practice Transitions Among Evidence-Based Home Visiting Programs in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Study, which aims to identify and study practices implemented in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency that support evidence-based practice and have the potential to enhance home visiting programming. One of the practices the study identified is the use of informal contacts. Informal contacts are any contacts between a home visitor and family that occur between formal home visits (e.g., text messages, emails). The purpose of this information collection is to better understand, through rapid cycle learning, how MIECHV-funded home visiting programs can use informal contacts to improve service delivery and promote caregiver’s engagement and satisfaction. The OMB control number for this information collection is 0906-0098 and it is valid until 7/31/2027. This information collection is voluntary. Data will be private to the extent permitted by the law. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average less than 1 hour per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, to review and complete the information collection. If you have comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 14N39, Rockville, Maryland, 20857 or [email protected], Attention: Information Collections Clearance Officer.