Research Participants needed for exciting short survey research: perceptions of recovery from ptsd

[Suzetig]

It attempts to address everyone who may have suffered - mild or severe, hospitalised or living in the community. I understand that question sounds extreme, but many sufferers do live a large part of their life in hospitals and secure settings - I work in one.

You surely know then that the vast majority of people in the U.K aren't hospitalised, in fact the majority of people recover from PTSD without therapeutic intervention and most do live in the community, work and manage their condition as part of their daily life. It feels like you're assuming most who have PTSD are so significantly impacted as to be unable to live productive lives and that's simply not the case - the folk you find in hospitals and in online forums like this tend to represent the most enduring cases, not what's normally out there. Are you seeking participants at the less enduring end of the spectrum?

Of course, folk need to be so unwell to get treatment of any sort that I'd probably be considered recovered because I live a good, productive, constructive life, with PTSD.

 

[HannahLW]

I am sorry you feel this way and I understand you wanting to give your perception of your recovery but that just wasn't the aim of my research. It is something I progress to do in the future but the purpose of the current research is to develop a scale that measures perceptions of PTSD, and to compare these results across three groups. I think that adding an element of 'personal experience' online and without doing a proper face to face interview just wouldn't do that type of research the justice it needs. You may see this as a missed opportunity but I wouldn't want to add a feature that couldn't be completed properly. I believe the type of research you suggest is far more beneficial as a qualitative piece, using an interview method.

The scale is directed towards different groups of people - as said in the information sheet. I intend to compare the results of those diagnosed against therapists and a control group, this is why the word "someone with a diagnosis" is used. It is presumed if you suffer with PTSD you would answer it based on your personal opinion/experience.

The CBT section is for therapists to answer, and I was advised to include it by my supervisor and lecturers on my course.

The case study - I wanted to capture an extreme sufferer of PTSD and just one possible scenario. It would be impossible for me to write one case study that covers the majority of PTSD situations fairly. Every story is different, and the case study is just one of them.

All of the research was approved by both my supervisor and the Psychology Ethics committee.

Again I am sorry you feel it is biased and could not continue.

You surely know then that the vast majority of people in the U.K aren't hospitalised, in fact the major...

Yes I do understand that a large proportion live in the community and many - unfortunately- go without help or treatment. I am not assuming anything or trying to infer anything about PTSD sufferers, I am simply seeking the perceptions of others on what they believe about recovery. The scale is formulated based on reading and research on PTSD recovery and previous perceptions, and is in its developing stages through the use of the current research. The use of the scale rated questions do not infer any beliefs about PTSD, as they ensure you can either agree or disagree with the questions on the scale. They are simply statements formulated from other research and reading, used to find out more about the perceptions of PTSD recovery.

I

Technical Problem : Your survey doesn't actually permit one to omit an answer, across most of...

Thank you, I will look into this technical problem!

I agree, it is almost impossible to cover every possible situation for PTSD in the scale, and think those who have suffered are finding this scale the most difficult - because they know better than anyone how varied it is. It is important to remember when answering - what can be possible, perhaps answering based more on your personal experience. Of course this all depends on what your perception of the meaning of recovery is, it means different things to different people to so is hard to quantify.

This is the first of hopefully much more research in this area.
Thank you for your response.

 

[Suzetig]

I am sorry you feel this way and I understand you wanting to give your perception of your recovery but that just wasn't the aim of my research.

I think you misunderstand me, it's not about me giving my perception of my recovery - it's about you trying to create a scale which grades recovery without really hearing the voices of people who experience PTSD. The questionnaire is worded in such a way that sufferers are limited by clinical terms and process which may not be how they experience PTSD or recovery, they certainly didn't reflect mine.

It's like asking people what their favourite fruit is, giving them a choice of apple, orange or pear and then declaring research shows apples are the nations favourite fruit. When options are pretty limited, and you can't not answer or have a "not applicable" or "other" choice folk are forced down your predetermined route.

The case study asks if the reader considers the young person to be recovered, but there's nowhere to comment on what folk thought recovery would look like if they didn't consider her to be recovered, i.e. Why did they think she had/hadn't recovered which is important because that's the bit that gives you the readers actual perception - otherwise you need to make some pretty big assumptions which will skew any scale you come up with.

I don't understand why, in a study aimed at getting views about recovery from professionals, sufferers and the general public, you would restrict opinions about CBT to professionals only. I know I have pretty strong views about CBT both personally and professionally - again service users are well placed to tell you what did or didn't work for them. I'd be wary, for example of a professional deciding that CBT dealt with underlying issues/the root of things without someone who received the service being asked their opinion too. That's why I feel it's a biased study from the outset, you've framed the study in professional terms, excluded service users from expressing their views about a key treatment option and given them limited scope to actually share their perceptions about recovery.

I understand you're committed now to the questionnaire and need to complete the research exercise, i do still think it's a missed opportunity.

 

[EveHarrington]

Uhm, that case study was nowhere near an extreme case of PTSD. Not even close.

You’re here in a community of people who tend to have chronic PTSD. We are having difficulties answering those questions because we know that we are on the more severe end of things but most people with this disorder recover with minor or no intervention. So can you understand how it’s impossible to answer those perception questions? We KNOW people are all over the map in terms of recovery. We can’t just check one little bubble with any amount of confidence.

 

[scout86]

this is why the word "someone with a diagnosis" is used. It is presumed if you suffer with PTSD you would answer it based on your personal opinion/experience.

Just FYI. that's not the way I interpreted those questions. I took it literally and answered that way. Which means, if you used a word like "might" or "possible", I generally answered in the affirmative, because many things are possible and I'd hate to say anything is IMPOSSIBLE unless I had a concrete reason to believe that. "Unlikely? That's different from impossible. If you worded it in such a way that I would need to have more knowledge than I actually do (mind reading, basically) then I gave a neutral answer, because there's no way I'd want to guess what someone else might do. I guess the fact that I didn't take the question the way you expected is a sign that I'm really NOT very good at mind reading. :bag:

 

[Mach123]

Hi I did the first part of the survey but trying to log in to the second I lost my pin. ; ( I'm sorry is there any way to retreive it? I'd like to participate in the 2nd part. I sent you an email about a week ago, I know it's the holidays. ; )

Thanks