LOASCA: LGBTQ+ Older Adult Social Care Assessment study

A research project at the University of Birmingham in collaboration with University of Bristol, University of Manchester, and Opening Doors

Funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research.

Download the information below as a word document

This research project is about the social care experiences of older LGBTQ+ adults and about how social care workers in England engage with sexual orientation and gender identity during assessments. We are interested in hearing from anyone who meets the following description:

  1. Social care workers (social workers, nurses, therapists, and social care workers)
  2. Involved in the assessment of older adults
  3. Working for the council
  4. Age 18+

Because of earlier research and conversations with older LGBTQ+ people, we know that many older LGBTQ+ people experience difficulties when trying to access social care and are often anxious about discrimination or abuse as a result of their sexual or gender identity. Our aim is to understand how LGBTQ+ people experience the social care assessment process and wider social care services.

What does participating involve?

If you choose to take part, you will complete an online survey in which we ask about your demographic information, such as your age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as your thoughts and beliefs about gender, sex, and relationships. We will also ask you about any training or support you have received for working with older LGBTQ+ people, as well as your social contact with LGBTQ+ people, and your religiosity. These will be asked using both multiple choice questions and open fields where you can write what you like.

Your data will be collected anonymously and only the researchers will have access to the raw data. This will take approximately 20 minutes. Taking part is voluntary and you can withdraw from the project at any time by clicking the indicated button on the survey page. As participation is anonymous it will not be possible to withdraw your data once you submitted the completed survey.

If you complete the survey, we will analyse the data alongside other data we are gathering from your local council and other councils in England, including answers from other social care workers at those councils. We will look at the relationships between your beliefs and other variables and identify key themes relevant to improving social care assessments for older LGBTQ+ people, including what is working well and where there are particular problems that require addressing.

We will communicate the findings and key messages to older LGBTQ+ people, social care services and social care workers through published reports, conference presentations and webinars. These will include a webinar for your councilto help them improve their specific service. If you want to hear more about the study after the data collection is finished, we can post or email you a short summary of the research findings if you wish. We will store your contact information separate from your survey responses to maintain your anonymity. It is our hope that messages from the research may help provide better social care for older LGBTQ+ people.

How will we use information about you?

We will need to use information from you for this research project. 

This information will include your name and contact details if you choose to disclose them to us. People will use this information to do the research or to check your records to make sure that the research is being done properly. People who do not need to know who you are will not be able to see your name or contact details. Your data will have a code number instead.

We will keep all information about you safe and secure.

Once we have finished the study, we will keep some of the data so we can check the results. We will write our reports in a way that no-one can work out that you took part in the study.

What are your choices about how your information is used?

  • You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep information about you that we already have.
  • We need to manage your records in specific ways for the research to be reliable. This means that we won’t be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you. 

Where can you find out more about how your information is used?

You can find out more about how we use your information 

Are there any risks in taking part?

There are no specific risks expected, though in some circumstances we may need to break confidentiality (see below).

Confidentiality

Your survey responses will be recorded anonymously. Please do not include any identifying information in your open field responses, however, if you do, we will treat it as confidential. The only exception to this is if you tell us something that suggests you, or someone else, is at risk of harm. If that happens, and if you have made the information identifiable, we will need to share it with others and we will tell you if we need to do this.

Your name, and anything else that might identify you, will not be used in any dissemination activity. We may use direct quotes from your open field responses, but we will use a pseudonym and not ask for your real name.

The raw data will be securely stored and may be used for other future research purposes but only by members of the same research team. It will not be shared with anyone else. For any publications, we will share the minimum data from multiple choice questions needed for others to check our statistics.

What do I do next?

Taking part is voluntary.

  • If you don’t want to take part, you don’t have to do anything. You may receive one more reminder about the study, but the research team do not have your personal details and will not contact you directly.
  • If you do want to take part, please go back to the survey, and tick the consent box.
  • If you would like further information before you decide, please contact Dr Jason Schaub. Jason is leading the study and would be happy to answer your questions.

Dr Jason Schaub
Lecturer in Social Work
Department of Social Work and Social Care
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston, Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Email: j.schaub@bham.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)121 414 5732

 

The study is being conducted by researchers at University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, University of Manchester, and Opening Doors. It is funded by the National Institute for Health Research School for Social Care Research. The study has received ethical approval from The Social Care Research Ethics Committee (22/IEC08/0007). If you have any concerns or complaints about this study and would like to speak to an independent person who is not a member of the research team, contact the University of Birmingham Research Governance Office at researchgovernance@contacts.bham.ac.uk.