Psychosocial training and support guidelines for research staff

Over the past six decades, protections for the mental well-being of human participants in research have been included in national and international research ethics guidelines. Moreover, supporting mental health in the workplace has become an increasingly important focus in global public health given evidence of the role of job stress in the development of mental health issues.1 Despite efforts to protect the mental well-being of human research participants and the workforce in general, the research community has so far failed to provide recommendations to protect the mental health needs of the research workforce. Specifically, the research community has neglected to formally recognize that the research process can have important implications for the mental health of research staff, including research assistants, analysts and students.2-6 We have also overlooked the need to provide guidance for appropriate supports to minimize harm. These oversights may disproportionately impact research teams based in low- and middle-income countries because in many of these countries, large burdens of untreated mental health disorders exist and public mental health infrastructure and mental health-care provision has widespread limitations.7,8Research, especially but not exclusively qualitative research, requires deep engagement with the topic matter, the lived experiences of participants, and the moral and political consequences of the findings. For many research projects, such involvement may mean significant emotional and intellectual effort is expended by research staff to engage with topics such as domestic violence, suicide and rape, which can lead to intense feelings of distress, shame, guilt, burnout, outrage and hopelessness.2-6 Moreover, this distress may be dealt with using negative coping strategies such as emotional numbing, avoidance or substance abuse.3,5,9 The emotional burden of research is likely to be heavier for individuals who are a member of the community that they are studying.4,5 Some research staff, including those working in local communities, may experience magnified risk as the result of ongoing societal adversities including classism, racism and sexism.