At 6pm (GMT) on Friday 7 November, the Samaritans announced they were suspending the Samaritans Radar. I’m not going to go into how they suspended it or why they suspended it.
Instead, I want to look at what happens next. The statement made by the Samaritans on suspending the tool included the line:
We will use the time we have now to engage in further dialogue with a range of partners, including in the mental health sector and beyond in order to evaluate the feedback and get further input. We will also be testing a number of potential changes and adaptations to the app to make it as safe and effective as possible for both subscribers and their followers.
One of the mechanisms by which they hope to capture feedback is by a survey which was released in a footnote of the suspension notice. This survey has not been promoted by the Samaritans in any other way, as far as I know. Although a number of individuals on the #SamaritansRadar hashtag have been talking about it.
There have been some concerns expressed about the methodological limitations of the survey – which is likely due to it being written in a bit of a panic last week. However, I want to make these limitations clear, so that the Samaritans can fully understand the restrictions on the input they gain from the survey, and I want to ensure that those who have been expressing concern about the Samaritans Radar have the opportunity to provide some critique.
Therefore, I have set up a Google Document (found here) that anyone should be able to view, edit and comment upon anonymously. If for any reason, this Google doc isn’t suitable for you – let me know via twitter (@MLBrook) or send me an email (on michelle@michellebrook.org), and I will send you a .doc copy with existing comments. You can then make your comments, and send a copy back, and I’ll add them to the Google Document – which acts as the canonical version.
If you are concerned about anonymity, feel free to set up a temporary email address somewhere which we can use to exchange email documents.
I’ll the write up the comments into a blog post, and from that write a letter to the CEO of the Samaritans. Anyone who wishes to be may be credited for their input – or may remain as anonymous as they like.
Quantumplations 
I am a former survey developer (over 20 years design, authoring, and data collection/analysis) and let me tell you right from the beginning you are attempting to be all-inclusive in an area which you should be breaking down into multiple surveys specific to population groups which will allow you to eliminate as many text box and “other” fields as possible. Until you do that, your data analysis will be a nightmare. Best of luck.
LikeLike
Thanks for putting the work into this, your doc is pretty comprehensive, covers a lot of points that various tweeps brought up. Excellent and useful thing to do.
LikeLike