Fwd: From Rofes - Recruitment of Subjects - Testing HIV-Positive Today

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/5/2005 5:40:31 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, BeefyMuscleBud writes:

Dear List Members,

This researcher needy your help. He is doing exactly the sort study we need

Dear List Members,

This researcher needy your help. He is doing exactly the sort study we need now to develop an approach to AIIDS education in the period of DL sex and the meth epidemic. Please see what you can do to help Dr. Rofes...incidentally, he wrote the two extraordinary books on sex , gay culture and the AIDS epidemic entitled

Reviving the Tribe and Dry Bones Breathe.

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Dear Colleagues:I need your help.I have embarked on a research project attempting to survey and interview gay men of call colors who have recently tested HIV-positive.I seek your help in getting the attached survey to gay men who have tested positive for HIV since the year 2000 began, or to others who might be able to share this survey with such folks.This confidential study is motivated by the desire to undertand how testing positive TODAY might be different than it was in 1985, twenty years ago. Amidst the debates on barebacking, crystal meth, and potential new strains of drug resistant HIV, there is often a deafening silence from newly infected men. This is understandable for many reasons, but I am eager to understand the ways gay men experience testing positive today. Is it the same as it was back in the 1980s? Hence this research study.I have attached a survey. If you know gay men who have tested HIV positive since the year 2000, would you kindly forward this to them and add your encouragement to them to consider filling out the survey?Your assistance will allow me to gain a greater understanding of the experiences of gay men testing positive today. Thank you for any help here.

Rofes, PhD

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Please Reply to

eerofes @ aol . com or to the addrss at the end of the document.

Attached below is the survey, if interested you can copy and paste it into an e mail window and pass the survey to any interested parties and then it can be e mailed

back to the researcher at. eerofes @ aol . com or sent to the address at the end of the document.

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Survey

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Survey Form & Informed Consent Form

For Gay Men Who Have Recently Tested Positive for HIV

Please fill out this survey. The researcher will treat this information in confidence.

Name:__________________________________

Today's Date:____________________________

Postal Address:

Phone Number: Email:

Date and Location of Birth:

What is your race/ethnicity?

How would you describe your class background, or what kind of work did your parents do when you were growing up?

What is your current--or most recent--job?

How would you prefer for the researcher to contact you? Please check one:

5 by email; 5 by postal mail; 5 by telephone; 5 other:________________________

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Now please respond to the following questions. You are not required to respond to every question. If you don’t want to answer a question, just skip it. Keep in mind that your words may be read by someone 100 years from now who is curious about gay men’s experiences in the 1970s, so be as accurate as possible.

1. When, where, and how did you learn you were HIV-positive?

2. Have you had any thoughts about how you came to be infected with HIV? If so, what have been these thoughts?

3. How did you react on learning you were HIV-positive? What were your thoughts and feelings? Have they changed over time? If so, how have the changed?

4. What advice would you give to people who are working in organizations with missions focused on diminishing or eliminating new seroconversions among gay men?

5. Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Thanks you.

Please return to:

Rofes, Ph.D. 73-B Collingwood Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

Gmhs3 @ aol.com

Humboldt State University

Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research

Consent to Act as Research Subject

Contemporary Gay Men's Narratives of Testing HIV-Positive

Principal Investigator: Rofes, Ph.D.

A. Purpose and Background on this Research Project

You are being invited t take part in a research study that will examine the different ways that gay men experience testing positive for HIV in today's world. Rofes, Ph.D. from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California is conducting this study.

The study plans to learn the various ways individual gay men who have tested HIV-positive since the year 2000 understand their experience of seroconverting, including how they believe they became infected with HIV, the various factors that influenced their activities that may have led to exposure to HIV, how they felt when they learned they were HIV-positive, and how any friends, family, or lovers have reacted if they told them they had seroconverted.

Deciding to join this study is completely up to you. Before you can make that decision, you will need to know:

the purpose of the study,

possible risks and benefits of the study,

what is expected from you.

This is the process known as "informed consent" and it is put in place by universities and other research institutions to ensure that people who participate in research studies are fully informed at the outset of what the study is all about.

Your participation is voluntary. This form will be given to you by Professor Rofes and he will discuss it with you and answer your questions. Once you understand the study and if you agree to take part, you will be asked to sign this consent form. It is important for you to know that:

your participation is completely up to you,

you may decide not to take part in the study or to withdraw yourself from the study at any time,

if you do not participate, you will not be penalized in any way

Please note that this study is of gay men who have tested positive for HIV since the year 2000 began. If you are not a gay man, please do not go any further. If you have not tested positive for HIV since the year 2000 began, please do not go any further. Thank you for your cooperation.

B. Study Procedures

If you choose to take part in this study, the following will take place:

1. You will be given a survey that asks questions about your experience of testing positive since 2000, as well as information about your background and how you can be contacted. You will be asked to return the survey to the study's principal investigator who will take steps to preserve your confidentiality and lock all materials in secure metal filing cabinets. You may skip any question you don't want to answer.

2. The researcher will determine whether or not he will seek to interview you. Interviews will take place face-to-face or on the telephone. He will inform you of the decision by your preferred method of contact within one month after receiving your survey.

3. If you are interviewed, the researcher will arrange a time, date, and location at your convenience to ask you a series of questions related to the study. The interview will take place in a private location if it is a face-to-face interview, or over the telephone if privacy can be assured. The interview will last between 45 and 90 minutes and you will be audiotaped. You do not have to answer all the questions in the interview and you may stop and end the interview at any time.

C. Possible Benefits of this Study

This study may or may or may not benefit you directly. However, there are potential benefits to other people and to society at large:

1. You will have the opportunity to share your own experiences and opinions with the researcher in a supportive and affirming environment.

2. The overall findings of this study will be presented to health providers, researchers, and people with HIV who will learn about the contemporary experiences, thoughts, and feelings of people who have tested positive for HIV since the year 2000. This might create a better understanding of the support and service needs of people with HIV in your area.

3. The overall findings of this study might also create a new understanding of ways in which HIV education and prevention work might best be designed in our current era.

D. Possible Risks Related to this Study

There are possible risks and discomforts associated with this study. These include:

1. There may be questions on the survey that you find uncomfortable or difficult to answer. Some of this may be painful to recall. You may leave any question blank if you wish. Also, you might decide that you do not want to complete the survey or hand it in at all. You do not have to do so. The researcher will answer any questions you have about the survey.

2. There may be questions during the interview that you find uncomfortable or difficult to answer. You do not have to answer any question. The researcher will support you during the interview and answer any questions you have. You might decide that you do not want to continue the interview at any time and you have the right to end the interview at any time.

3. Confidentiality: Your survey document and possible interview transcript and tapes will be kept confidential. In order to protect your privacy, once your survey is returned, the page with your name and identifying characteristics (address, phone, etc.) will be assigned an ID number. This same ID number will be place on the survey.

The two items (the page with your name and the survey responses) will be kept in two different locked file cabinets in two different locations. Likewise, your interview tapes and transcripts will not include your actual name, but will utilize a pseudonym (fake name) that the researcher will assign. The tapes and transcripts will be kept in locked file cabinets. A transcriber who has signed a document ensuring confidentiality will type the transcripts from interviews.

The information from this study may be published in academic journals or presented at academic meetings. It may form the basis of articles in magazines or the basis of a performance piece focused on this topic. In all cases, your name and identifying characteristics will be kept strictly confidential. The audiotapes will be destroyed within three years after the end of the study, which is expected to be during June, 2007.

4. Exceptions to Confidentiality: Regulations require that health care workers and educators, as well as researchers, report known or reasonably suspected incidents of child abuse, including child sexual abuse. They must also report a participant's intention to harm others to the police and to the intended victim. The researcher might also need to break confidentiality if a participant is a danger to himself or others, in order to help assure the safety and well-being of the participant and the public.

E. Alternatives

The alternative is available to you and all potential participants to decline to take part in this study.

F. Costs and Compensation

There will be no costs to you as a result of taking part in this research study. There will also be no payment to you for your participation.

G. Problems or Questions?

If any questions arise for you about this study or any problems develop, you should contact:

Rofes, Ph.D. or gmhs3@...

If you have questions about your rights as a research subject, you should contact:

Humboldt State University's Committee on Human Subjects c/o Dean Donna Schafer

Or write

Dean Donna Schaefer

Committee on Human Subjects

Humboldt State University

1 Harpst Street

Arcata, CA 95521

H. CONSENT

After reading and reviewing the information provided above, I was given the chance to ask questions. Any questions I have had have been answered to my satisfaction.

I hereby agree

· to fill out the survey and return it to the researcher

· to be interviewed concerning my experiences and thoughts on testing positive for HIV since 2000

· that my participation is entirely voluntary and that I have the right to decline to enter this study or withdraw from it at any time without jeopardy

· that the researcher will answer any questions that I may have about the survey and the interview at any time before, during, or after the research takes place

· that the researcher may terminate my participation in the study at any time

· that I am not entitled to any compensation for my participation in this study

· that my participation in this survey and interview involves possible risks

· that this research has potential public benefit in broadening and making more complex people's knowledge about the experiences of gay men with HIV.

I acknowledge that I am free not to join this study or stop my participation in this study at any time. My signature below shows that I am at least 18 years old and that I have chosen to take part in this research.

________________________________ _______________________________

Participant's Signature Date

________________________________

Participant's Name (printed clearly)

Please return to: Rofes, Ph.D., 73-B Collingwood, San Francisco, CA 94114

Dear Colleagues:

I need your help.

I have embarked on a research project attempting to survey and interview gay

men of call colors who have recently tested HIV-positive.

I seek your help in getting the attached survey to gay men who have tested

positive for HIV since the year 2000 began, or to others who might be able to

share this survey with such folks.

This confidential study is motivated by the desire to undertand how testing

positive TODAY might be different than it was in 1985, twenty years ago.

Amidst the debates on barebacking, crystal meth, and potential new strains of

drug

resistant HIV, there is often a deafening silence from newly infected men.

This is understandable for many reasons, but I am eager to understand the

ways gay men experience testing positive today. Is it the same as it was back

in

the 1980s? Hence this research study.

I have attached a survey. If you know gay men who have tested HIV positive

since the year 2000, would you kindly forward this to them and add your encour

agement to them to consider filling out the survey?

Your assistance will allow me to gain a greater understanding of the

experiences of gay men testing positive today. Thank you for any help here.

Rofes, PhD

73-B Collingwood Street

San Francisco, CA 94114

gmhs3@...