Team composition

Ideally, the team for an RAR-based addiction care project should consist of three to four members. One of them should be the project coordinator. It is also desirable for the team to stay together for the entire duration of the project. The workers should have basic social-scientific knowledge. All need to be trained in the methods to be used. The composition of the team should also accord with the target group envisaged. This concerns factors such as age, sex, ethnicity and religious views. For example, some cultural groups among refugees, asylum seekers and illegal migrants would not be able to conceive of having a woman interviewed by a man. It is also the task of the team members to establish contact with already existing organisations and institutions that are familiar with the subject being dealt with.

Gathering information

Information forms the basis of every RAR-based project. For this reason, the way it is secured is a central concern of the team. The preparation phase of the RAR is primarily concerned with finding key informants, developing their trust and, through them, establishing contact with other persons who can provide important information. This way of establishing contact is based on the ‘snow ball principle’. For the members of the team this means being frequently and regularly present at the locations where the people gather who are to be helped by the project.

The graphic shows in simplified form the main points of interest in semi-structured interviews. Click on the image to create a large view in a new window.

The intention is to create a pool of information by utilising the various semi-structured and structured interview techniques, establishing focus groups, involving key informants and, above all, by developing a network of contacts among those affected. By crosschecking, i.e. by linking and checking individual pieces of information with other information, it is possible to assess their relevance for the project.

Only by this means is it possible to identify particular hurdles or even positive aspects within a social group. For example, if the same prevention strategy for alcohol addiction used for immigrants from the Balkan states were also used for Muslim asylum seekers, this would be doomed to failure. Whereas consuming two glasses of alcohol a day would already be considered problematic in Islamic cultures as alcohol is disapproved of and is forbidden there, the same amount of alcohol in Eastern European countries would be considered harmless. The team members must take this into account and determine such information in the preparation phase.

The same applies for background knowledge on the situation of migrants in the host country, for example if admitting to addiction problems would place their residential status at risk.

RAR interview: What the interviewer should consider

Source: Bram, Richard; Trautmann, Franz and Hans Verbraeck (2002): ‘Rapid Assessment and Response’ (RAR) Manual for Problematic Substance Use Among Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Illegal Migrants; published by: Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Koordinationsstelle Sucht (Coordination Office for Drug-related Addiction), Münster.

Organising the data

It is important that you already begin organising the information gathered during the preparation phase, and even more so during the evaluation phase. Somebody needs to be in charge of this. This will normally be the project coordinator.

Every team member must be informed immediately of current activities and the latest findings. For this reason, a standardised method must be used to process captured data. For the projects in SEARCH and SEARCH II, so-called ‘grids’ were developed. Grids are guideline questions and questionnaires for the various types of interviews and focus groups. They provide the team members with a framework for conducting the discussions. In particular, however, they enable the captured information to be processed in a structured way. Grids provide various categories in which the findings can be classified. As all members work with the same grids, the information gathered over the course of the project is classified according to the same principles. This makes it possible to compare and combine the various items of information.