Risks and Confidentiality |
On the questionnaires, you are asked to answer some personal questions about yourself and your relationship. This is usually a positive experience, though someone experiencing turmoil in personal matters could feel that more intensely by answering the questions. For most people, such self-exploration is beneficial. If you are experiencing personal or relationship distress at this point and desire immediate or additional assistance from a mental health professional, please contact your chaplain, who can provide counseling or counseling referrals. It is especially important to get help if you are thinking of hurting yourself or someone else. It is very important that whatever you put on your questionnaires remain private and confidential. Several steps have been taken to ensure that the answers you provide on your questionnaires will be kept confidential and private. You will NOT put your name or other identifying information on your questionnaires. The questionnaires will be marked only with a unique ID number. When you complete questionnaires on post, we will make sure your spouse will not see your answers. After you complete your questionnaires, you will immediately seal them and they will be mailed directly to the University of Denver . Your envelopes will not be opened by anyone at your post or anyone in the Army. All questionnaires will remain in the possession of the University of Denver, and will not be seen by Army personnel. When you complete later sets of questionnaires online (or by mail), we ask that you complete them privately and do not discuss your answers with your spouse. At the University of Denver, we will keep questionnaires in a locked room in our locked facilities, and only key study personnel will have access to the information. There are, however, two exceptions to the promise of confidentiality. If information is revealed about suicide, homicide, or child abuse and neglect, it may be required by law that this be reported to the proper authorities. In addition, should any information contained in this study be the subject of a court order or lawful subpoena, the University of Denver may not be able to avoid compliance with the order or subpoena. Such circumstances are highly unusual. |
Signed informed consents will be kept separately in a secure locked cabinet. Any information provided to the U.S. Army regarding study findings will be reported in summaries, where your responses will be combined with those of hundreds of other respondents. It will NOT be possible to identify any individual from the information that the University of Denver provides to the U.S. Army.