Timeframe: 01 December 2002 – 30 August 2003.
Brief Description
The following tasks have been carried out in order to prepare the later stages of the study - data gathering, data analysis and dissemination:
- A reliable communication network between all project partners via Internet has been established.
- Each centre has created a local focus group with representatives from each hospital participating in the study, also involving users' and their relatives' representatives, experts on legal issues, ethical issues and social services.
- A two-week exploratory study on frequency and practice of coercive measures has been carried out in each centre.
- Questionnaires and interviews have been translated into all languages (where those versions did not yet exist) - independently of each other by three native speakers who have compared and discussed their translations.
- Central instruments and questions have been back-translated into English and piloted in patient interviews and in clinical routine.
- A standardised procedure for assessing patients' eligibility for study inclusion, for informing patients about the aims of the study and for obtaining informed consent has been defined.
- Approval on ethics and data protection from all relevant organisations in each centre has been obtained.
- Researchers and clinicians have been trained in the use of the assessment instruments and interviews with training videos and case vignettes. This procedure is being continued on a regular basis throughout the data gathering phase.
- Each centre has involved in the project at least one expert on legal regulations and developments concerning coercive measures. Each of these experts is drawing up one report for each centre on all relevant national laws, norms and legal procedures.
- Standardised descriptions of all catchments areas involved in the study are being made, describing socio-demographic characteristics and mental health services.
- A web-based computerised data collection system has been established.
- The study is being advertised to health professionals, user organisations, politicians and the general public.
- Each centre sends a monthly report to the co-ordinator, using a standardised format.
- Project meetings with two delegates from each centre are being held every four months on a host-rotating basis.
