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Sunday, 10 February 2019 00:12

The War Within

depression

 

 

RESEARCH PROJECT

The War Within: Making sense of suicide through narratives with former serving Australian Defence Force members

 

 

PARTICIPANTS WANTED

For further information please see information and recruitment flyer and or contact Nikki Jamieson on 0419907069 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

RESEARCH PROJECT : The War Within: Making sense of suicide through narratives with former serving Australian Defence Force members

Are you a former Australian Defence Force (ADF) member?

Have you experienced feelings of self-condemnation, guilt, shame, or suicide?

My name is Nikki Jamieson and I lost my son to suicide whilst he served in the ADF. I am now researching the concept of “moral injury” (MI) and how it might relate to the former ADF service for my doctoral thesis with the University of New England (UNE) and would like to invite you to participate in this study. My interest and prime motivation is to build on international evidence and develop support/training for the future.

 

Moral injury has been described as the turmoil or suffering that may develop following a violation of our deeply held moral beliefs and values and subsequent difficulties in functioning. Feelings such as guilt and shame are commonly reported constructs. These negative feelings are said to be an inward focus of distress that can lead to self-condemning behaviour and or eventual annihilation of the self (for example, suicide ideation, suicidal behaviour).

If you believe that during your ADF experience you did do or saw things that conflict with your beliefs and values and may be still affecting you, I would like to interview you and learn about your experience.

Your participation in the study will be confidential and interviews will be conducted one on one, (unless you request otherwise) by me and last approximately 1-2 hours.

To qualify for the study, you will be a former serving ADF member who:

  • Left the ADF within the last five years?
  • Has experienced the symptoms of moral injury or the constructs as described above?
  • Is not currently experiencing severe psychological symptoms (such as severe nightmares and flashbacks, suicidal ideation, plans or attempts)?
  • Is willing to speak about your experience and events?

Your participation will help to expand the research on MI, shame and suicide and help to inform ways of assessment and treatment for current and former ADF members.

Unless otherwise specified or a mandatory/legal requirement (eg. disclosing a notifiable incident such as a risk of harm to yourself or others), your answers will be completely confidential and any personal details, which may identify you in any way, will not be passed to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Your answers will not in any way affect any pension, benefits or health services which you are entitled to from DVA, or to which you may become entitled in the future. If you wish, you can discontinue your participation in this study at any time.

Please see the Information Sheet below for Participants and contact Nikki Jamieson on 0419907069 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested in participated or for more information regarding the study, participation and eligibility screening.

My supervisors are:

Principal Supervisor: Professor Myfanwy Maple - Principal Supervisor – University of New England. Tel. 02 67733661 email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Co-supervisor:  Dr Dorothy Ratnarajah - University of New England. Tel.  07 41941760. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Co-supervisor: Dr Jennifer Boddy – Griffith University. Tel. 07 55527396. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Research Project

The War Within: Making sense of suicide through narratives with former serving Australian Defence Force members

Aim of the Research

 

The aim of this study is to more fully understand the meaning and impact of moral injury (and in particular shame) on suicide behaviour as experienced by former ADF members. Given the increasing suicide statistics post ADF service, it is important to have a better understanding of moral injury and in particular shame, in an ADF context so that it can be better understood by the ADF, as well as the public, community, families and mental health care providers alike. This will help us to better identify those dealing with the impacts of moral injury and suicide and will help to create treatments geared directly to the experience of these.  The prime motivation for this work is to build on international evidence and develop support/training for the future.

Interview

 

 

 

Benefits

 

 

 

 

 

Risk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guidelines for participants

I would like to conduct a face-to-face interview with you at (Location and time of interview to be determined). The interview will take approximately 1-2 hours.  With your permission, I will make an audio recording of the interview to ensure that I accurately recall the information you provide.  Following the interview, a transcript will be provided to you if you wish to see this.

Direct benefit to you: you may gain personal insight into your own experience of moral injury; and provided with a task that may or may not help with your own experiences.

Your participation could also help others by enhancing our understanding and knowledge of the implications of moral injury post ADF service, and could also help us to expand the research on moral injury, shame and suicide that might then help to inform future ways of assessment and treatment for current and former ADF members.

The interview may raise some upsetting issues for you. As a part of this research I will follow up and check in with you via telephone within 24 hours after the interview. If this research raises any personal or upsetting issues you may also wish to also contact the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service on 1800 011 046, or your local GP, Community Health Centre, (to add relevant phone numbers here) and or Lifeline on 13 11 14.  Or I can also refer you to a trained psychologist at Soldier On in Brisbane who is aware of this study. Alternatively, if you have a preferred contact, I can also contact that person on your behalf with your permission. I have also provided a factsheet with a list of services in your area that you may wish to contact also.

A copy of the Department of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee (DDVA HREC) Guidelines for Volunteers will be provided to you prior to interview, which is also available at http://www.defence.gov.au/health/hrec/docs/Guidelines_for_Volunteers.pdf. A factsheet outlining a range of support services available to all participants will also be provided, including but not limited to details of support lines: Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service and the ADF All Hours line as well as a range of specialised mental health organisations.

Confidentiality

Subject to any legal and or ethical requirements that will be discussed with you prior to interview (eg. notifiable events/risk of harm to yourself or others)

Your answers will be completely confidential and any personal details, which may identify you in any way, will not be passed to the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA). Your answers will not in any way affect any pension, benefits or health services which you are entitled to from DVA, or to which you may become entitled in the future. If you wish, you can discontinue your participation in this study at any time.

Any personal details gathered in the study will remain confidential. No individual will be identified by name in any publication of the results. All names will be replaced by pseudonyms; this will ensure your anonymity.

Your transcripts from the interview will be provided to you for your review and if you agree I would like to quote some of your responses. This will also be done in a way to ensure that you are not identifiable.

Participation is Voluntary

Please understand that your involvement in this study is voluntary and I respect your right to withdraw from the study at any time without consequence, without any detriment to your career or to your future health care and without needing to provide an explanation.

Use of Information / dissemination of findings

I will use information from the interview as part of my doctoral thesis, which I expect to complete in 2019.  Information from the interview may also be used in academic journal articles and conference presentations before and after this date.  At all times, I will safeguard your identity by presenting the information in a way that will not allow you to be identified. At the end of the Ph.D you will be offered a summary of the final report and or any journal articles published from the Ph.D after the Ph.D thesis has been published.

Storage of Information

I will keep all hardcopy notes and recordings of the interviews in a locked cabinet in my home office prior to uploading onto cloud.une.edu.au system. Cloud is the UNE’s centrally managed cloud server system managed by the research team. Any information stored will also be kept on a password protected computer in the same location until that can be uploaded.  Only the research team will have access to the data. Data retention period of five years commences upon publication of findings.

Disposal of Information

All the data collected in this research will be kept for a minimum of five years after successful submission of my thesis, after which time it will be disposed of by deleting relevant computer files and destroying or shredding any hardcopy materials.

Ethics & Approval

This project will be carried out according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007). This statement has been developed to protect the interests of people who agree to participate in human research studies.

This project has been approved by both the Department of Defence and Veterans ‘Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee (valid to 10/7/2020) and the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New England (valid to 6/9/2019).


Researchers Contact Details

Feel free to contact me with any questions about this research by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone on 0419907069.

You may also contact my supervisors. My Principal supervisor’s name is Professor Myfanwy Maple and she can be contacted by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone on 02 67733661and my Co-supervisor’s name is Dr Dorothy Ratnarajah on 07 41941760 and her email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and or my other co-supervisor Dr Jennifer Boddy phone number is 07 55527396 or email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Concerns or complaints

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funding

 

Should you have any complaints or concerns about the manner in which this project is conducted, please do not hesitate to contact the researchers in person or any of the two approving ethical review bodies who can be contacted as below:

DDVA HREC

Executive Officer, CP3-7-038, PO Box 7911, CANBERRA. ACT 2610. Telephone: (02) 6266 3807. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

University of New England

Ethics Department: Ms Jo-Ann Sozou, Research Ethics Officer. University of New England. Armidale. NSW. 2351. Tel (02) 6773 3449  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This research project is being conducted by Nikki Jamieson at the University of New England as part of a Ph.D program funded by the researcher and through university scholarship. No member of the research team will receive a personal financial benefit from your involvement in this research project (other than their ordinary wages).

 

Thank you for considering this request and I look forward to further contact with you.

Regards - Nikki Jamieson

Last modified on Sunday, 10 February 2019 00:21