1. Is this is a research project?
Yes, it is funded by the National Institute on Aging, one of the
National Institutes of Health, which is part of the federal government.
Our goal is to find the best ways to help people cope with the process of adjusting
to a new life after a spouse or partner dies. We will be offering an educational
and support program to help people but we are also interested in learning new
information that we can share with others in the future. Many experts throughout
the United States and other countries are aware of our project and hope to learn
from our research.
2. What can I do to help with the Living After LossSM Project?
The most important things you can do are to be aware of the program and be
supportive of what we are trying to accomplish. If you are approached by
someone we have invited to participate in the program we would appreciate it
if you would encourage them to do so. We want to include newly widowed persons
who are having difficulty coping but we are equally interested in learning from
those who are managing quite well. We need to learn from everyone's experiences.
Everyone who participates in this study and program are likely to obtain some
information that will be useful to them and also have a chance to be helpful to
others who attend the group meetings.
3. Can I help recruit or refer widowed persons to your project?
Because it is a research project, we must follow the research rules of including
only those who qualify by being age 50+, widowed between 2-4 months, and were
listed on the State Department of Health records as the surviving spouse/partner.
We do welcome your supportive comments about our project but we cannot include
everyone who might benefit from being in the program.
4. Will your project be competing for the same people in another community program?
We prefer that the widowed persons in our program would not be participating
in another community program for widowed persons but we would not prevent them
from doing so. We need to find out how helpful our program is and it makes that
more difficult if people are being helped from other programs at the same time.
We will only have about 48 recently widowed persons each year participate in
our program so many others who need help will not be able to be in our project.
We hope that other community agencies or organizations who provide similar services
would NOT see us as competitors, but, as other professionals trying to improve our
ways to be helpful. We can all learn from each other and we plan to share our
knowledge with everyone who is interested.
5. Who are the group leaders and what are their qualifications?
All of the group leaders were identified as professionals with college
degrees, had past experience in leading group sessions and were
knowledgeable about grief and widowhood issues. All of the group leaders
were trained for this specific project and are skilled at running group
sessions and aware of the grieving process.
6. What happens in the group meetings?
The 14 weekly group meetings will give each person the opportunity
to talk with others who are experiencing similar situations and to
learn from each other. Each participant will likely obtain some new
information to help them take better care of him/herself and adapt
more effectively. Each person will receive a free workbook containing
information that goes along with what is covered in the group meetings.
7. Do the participants have to attend all the 14 group meetings?
We hope each person will try to attend all the meetings or at least as many
as they possibly can. We realize that there may be times when it is
difficult for them to attend a meeting but it will be helpful for
everyone to attend regularly.
8. How many questionnaires do the participants complete and how long will they take to answer?
There will be four questionnaires that the participants complete during the study.
Although each one will be about 19 pages long, they only take about 45
minutes to complete. After the participant mails back each of the four
questionnaires we will send them a check for $25 (for a total of $100) to
show our appreciation for their time and effort. If a participant cannot use
a pen or pencil to fill out a questionnaire we can arrange to have a staff member
do a home visit and ask the questions and write their answers for them.
Again, all of their answers will be held in the strictest confidence.
9. Will your knowledge about each participant be kept confidential?
Yes, it is very important that we keep everyone's questionnaires, comments,
feelings confidential. Our entire project staff have been thoroughly trained
and part of this training included confidentiality and privacy issues.
No participant will be identified as being in the program and none of their
comments or experiences will be identified with them. Our information will
be kept in locked files at our university offices. When we share our new knowledge
with others in presentations, articles and books, we will never identify who
the participants were or what a specific person said or did during the project.
10. What if they have problems with transportation to the meetings?
Is there public transportation nearby that you can use?
We hope that friends, relatives or others might be able to help
get people to the meetings. Public transportation might also be
used or another member in the group might be able to help. Our
group leaders may be able to help arrange for transportation if
none of these are viable options. Our project staff will help find
a solution (University of Utah site: 801-581-7954, or San Francisco State
University site: 415-405-7582).
