6 Simon Communities of Ireland another person to be present for the interview (six of the sixteen chose to have someone else attend the interview. Again, the choice of who the interviewee wanted to attend the interview with them was theirs. (In two cases it was a Simon staff member, in four cases it was a Simon volunteer). The actual interview began with the researcher explaining the purpose of the research and the format of the interview. She also explained how the anonymity of the interviewee would be protected, how the data collected would be stored, who would have access to it and on what terms and about the confidentiality of information provided by participants in the course of the interview. The interviewee was encouraged to ask questions and to not participate if they were not happy with the answers they received. They were also advised that they could chose to terminate the interview at any point and were free to skip any questions they were not comfortable answering. Assuming the interviewees were happy to proceed, they were asked to verbally confirm this and to sign a written consent form (to be seen and held exclusively by the researcher). Nineteen individuals signed the consent form and agreed to proceed with the interview. As the interview proceeded with three of these individuals, it became apparent that their capacity to sustain a conversation and the narrative of their lives appeared to have been adversely affected by chronic problematic alcohol use. These interviews were ultimately not included in the study because of concerns in relation to their reliability and coherence. The researcher kept detailed notes of the interviews and sought permission as part of the consent process to record the interviews (for her exclusive use) to ensure a full record of the interviews. • Provision of information about support services – participation in the interview process brought up difficult issues for some participants. Where this was the case interviewees were asked whether a) they wanted to terminate/take a break from the interview (all declined) and b) they wanted/needed to be referred to relevant support services. A small number requested that the researcher would advise a relevant Simon staff member that they had been upset.
Homelessness, Ageing and Dying
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