Obtaining informed consent in evaluating trauma and recovery and settlement services

One of the challenging areas in the provision of trauma recovery services and indeed in the provision of settlement services to newly arrived refugees and humanitarian entrants is effective evaluation of services. Evaluation... [ view full abstract ]

One of the challenging areas in the provision of trauma recovery services and indeed in the provision of settlement services to newly arrived refugees and humanitarian entrants is effective evaluation of services. Evaluation of services involves, among other things, finding out from clients whether they found the services useful and whether their needs were met. Obtaining informed consent from clients to participate in research evaluation is an important principle in the evaluation of services. How do we know that a client has given informed consent? Do clients really understand informed consent? Drawing on my experience carrying out fieldwork for my PhD, I reflect on the challenges I faced in obtaining informed consent and argue that for some client groups it is difficult to tell whether informed consent is obtained. What is usually considered as informed consent is a form of consent given under the impression that one is obliged to give consent to reciprocate the fact that a service has been received for free.