Given Hapunda

130 Information, understanding, agreement to volunteer, and decision-making capacity are the four main elements of informed consent (Pedroni & Pimple 2001), as follows: Information : M&E staff should share information about possible risks and benefits of participation, use of results, confidentiality procedures, contact information for voicing concerns, and any other information relevant to the decision to participate with all potential respondents prior to requesting consent. Understanding : M&E staff must ensure that potential participants fully understand the information provided prior to requesting consent. Agreement to volunteer : Potential participants should, in no way, be coerced, persuaded or pressured to participate. Decision-making capacity : Informed consent requires that each participant has full decision-making capabilities and is able to weigh the risks and benefits of participation. Special consideration is required when seeking informed consent from vulnerable groups who may not have full decision-making capacity, including children, persons with mental disabilities, very poor individuals, and persons with limited access to services and resources. Consideration from an ethical review committee is required to determine whether and how informed consent can be obtained from these vulnerable groups. 2. Follow the appropriate standards for confidentiality and anonymity of data collected from participants. Confidentiality guarantees that data that could link information to respondents, Focus Box 5: Rights of Participants To determine the impact of a prescription drug take-back programme, an evaluator is coordinating with the local community college to assess students’ use of the programme and their substance use behaviors. The evaluator knows that it is important to have a broad representation of students to ensure the generalisability of the findings. Funds are available to provide a monetary incentive to professors for every class that has at least 80% of registered students complete the survey. The evaluator suggests that professors offer extra credit to students who complete the survey in order to increase participation rates and the likelihood they will receive the incentive. Professors are also encouraged to introduce the evaluation as they deem appropriate given the course subject and size of the classroom. One professor asked if it would be okay to send out individual emails to his students who are involved with the campus peer recovery program. Because it is possible that students could take the survey more than once the evaluator has included student ID as one of the survey questions.How does these scenarios affect agreement to volunteers and decision making of respondents?