Emotional and Mental Welfare for User Researchers

Protecting our researchers

User Researchers have an enviable role, they’re job is to empathise with users to understand their stories and then champion the user needs back to an organisation.

In government this position is even more humbling as we conduct primary research with participants that are retelling very sensitive stories. The services cover huge life events that are stressful, emotional and just difficult.

As user researchers we are humbled by those participants that are willing to tell us their stories, so that we can learn what we can do as organisations to do our bit in reducing the effort and stress that going through these services incurs.

As researchers we follow ethical and safeguarding guidelines to ensure that we look after the welfare of our participants. However, researching these highly sensitive and emotive topics can affect the mental state of the researcher facilitating the session. Spending the time empathising with our participants and reliving their experiences can impact researchers. It can remind us of our own previous experiences or ignite an emotional response that we weren’t expecting.

It is vital that we provide mechanisms to look after the welfare of researchers, by providing channels that allow researchers to vent their emotions and feelings about topics that they are understanding. There is only one argument that matters in this, and it’s one of morality.

Informally we sometimes debrief each other about the emotions that were experienced during the research. However there is no formal process in place in which to ensure the welfare of the emotional and mental state of researchers is maintained in a positive place. We haven’t normalised the action of seeking support in any of its possible forms. How do we really know if we are doing all we can to ensure that we are looking after the emotional and mental states of our researchers.

What we’re doing

Designing 3 tier approach to provide a process and support network to any researcher to protect their emotional and mental welfare.

This looks like :

1. A support community group. The aim of this would be to provide an open forum (open to researchers) where researchers could speak freely to the research community about research they have conducted and to discuss sensitive issues that have been raised. Primarily this forum would work on a asynchronous digital platform (Slack). Topics could also be discussed at Research community meetups.
2. Private liaison/buddying system. Researchers would put their name forwards to be buddies, this list would be open for access to the research community. The list would contain contact details, profile, previous experience and interests. Any researcher who is in need to talk to someone or debrief about a piece of research could contact any buddy from the list. The arrangements between the researcher and buddy would be decided by them. Guidance for how that chat could work would be provided.
3. Professional support. Signposting to professional support networks to discuss topics.

To achieve this we’re going to set up the network in two phases

Phase 1 — Get the infrastructure in place to be able to provide support

• A private slack channel for all researchers
• Terms of reference for being part of the Support network
• Principles of support
• Signposting to support options

Phase 2 — Raise awareness of support, normalise support and train staff to be part of giving support

• Awareness training
• Buddying system
• Normalise support

Principles of Support

1. Talk about you, and your feelings
2. Getting support is normal
3. Listen carefully
4. It’s about you
5. Not a substitute for professional support

Just the first step

This is a first iteration at setting up a Welfare support network. We’re looking outwards to learn from other associations and organisations. I’m keen to speak with and learn from other similar setups.