Frequently Asked Questions

You can learn more about our study team here. This study is led by Dr. Emily Dworkin, a former rape crisis advocate and a current Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors. Dr. Dworkin is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in trauma, sexual assault, PTSD, and best practices for helping to support survivors of recent sexual assault. This research is also guided by a Survivor Advisory Board, which is a group of survivors who meet monthly with the CARE team to help guide how the study is done.

This study is funded by a grant (#2020-SI-AX-0007) from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The Department of Justice does not have access to any personal information about anyone who participates. Also, even though the Office on Violence Against Women is funding the study, the study is open to people of all genders, including men, nonbinary, and other gender diverse people.

Many people rely on their friends, family, and others for support right after an unwanted sexual experience. But those supporters aren’t always sure what to do to be helpful. We created a program to help supporters learn ways that they can be helpful. We want to see how helpful this program is to survivors and their supporters.

The CARE program is a service for survivors and supporters. The CARE study is a research study to learn more about the impact of the CARE program.

Many survivors do not use terms like "sexual assault" or "rape" to refer to their experience. We use the term "unwanted sexual experiences" so that survivors who might not see themselves in a term like "sexual assault" still feel welcomed by us. When survivors call, we ask for their preferred term, and then use that term in all further contacts with them.

The first step is for the survivor to contact us by phone so we can tell them about the study, answer any questions, and ask them questions to see if the study is a good fit. Then, the survivor and their supporter come to a ~2.5 hour Zoom appointment. Both people will be invited to fill out a questionnaire at the beginning of the appointment.

There are 3 versions of the CARE program and you will be randomly selected to get one of these versions after you finish the questionnaire. We will let you know which version of CARE you will get during the appointment.

Version 1: Both people stay in the Zoom appointment and get the CARE program together. At the end of the call, both people will be invited to fill out a short questionnaire. Then, we will send both of you a workbook to help you review what you learned and practice your skills together over the next 2 weeks. Then, 2 weeks later, the survivor and supporter would go to a second Zoom appointment together. Finally, you would both be invited to fill out an online questionnaire 1, 2, and 3 months later.

Version 2: The survivor leaves the Zoom appointment and completes a short questionnaire, and the supporter stays and gets the CARE program alone. At the end of the call, the supporter will be invited to complete a short questionnaire, and we will send a workbook to both the survivor and supporter. This workbook will help the supporter explain the CARE skills to the survivor in private and help you practice your skills together over the next 2 weeks. Then, 2 weeks later, the supporter would go to a second Zoom appointment on their own. Finally, you would both be invited to fill out an online questionnaire 1, 2, and 3 months later.

Version 3: You would schedule an appointment to get CARE in 3 months. The survivor would get to choose whether they wanted to attend the CARE program appointment with the supporter, or whether they would prefer for the supporter to attend alone. Then, both people would be invited to complete a short questionnaire. Finally, you would both be invited to fill out an online questionnaire 1, 2, and 3 months later.

The time commitment for survivors is 20-30 minutes for the phone call to tell you about the study and answer your questions, one 1-hour Zoom appointment where you'll complete your first two questionnaires, one 1-2 hour workbook completed on your own time, and three 20-minute questionnaires completed over 3 months. Some survivors will additionally be selected to attend two 1.5-hour CARE sessions. This works out to about 3.5-7.5 hours total for survivors.

The time commitment for supporters is one 1 hour Zoom appointment where you'll complete your first two questionnaires, two 1.5-hour CARE sessions, one 1-2 hour workbook completed on your own time, and three 20-minute questionnaires completed over 3 months. This works out to about 6-7 hours total for supporters.

You can expect to hear back from JP, Emily, or Jenna ASAP (usually within 3 business days) to set up a time to talk by phone. We will call you to tell you more about the study and answer your questions. If you’re a survivor, we will ask you some multiple choice questions to see if this study is a good fit, and if so, help you think about what support person you want to invite to the Zoom session. Then, we will work with you to schedule your Zoom session.

You would talk to JP, Emily, or Jenna. Learn more about them here!

Yes! Privacy and confidentiality are of the utmost importance to us. Everything you tell us will be stored securely with an ID number, and your name and contact information will be stored separately from what you tell us. This is so that your answers can’t be linked to anything that might personally identify you. An important exception to confidentiality is if we were to learn that you were seriously thinking of hurting yourself or someone else. In that case, we might need to take steps to keep you or others safe.

It’s always okay to change your mind about your participation in the study! For example, you can skip any questions you don’t want to answer or surveys that you don’t want to do. You can always let us know that you don’t want to participate anymore, and we won’t contact you again.

CARE is a new program for recent survivors of unwanted sexual experiences and their supporters (friends, family, romantic partners, and other loved ones). CARE aims to help survivors and their supporters learn ways to communicate that can support recovery after an unwanted sexual experience, and get on the same page about what is helpful to the survivor. CARE involves two 90-minute video appointments with an expert.

No, CARE is not therapy. The two sessions do not involve talking about the unwanted sexual experience or other difficult or upsetting things that have happened to you. Instead, they are focused on learning coping, communication, and support skills.

In general, survivors and their supporters age 14+ are eligible within 10 weeks of an unwanted sexual experience. You can read more about the eligibility criteria here.

We know that many survivors seek support from their loved ones in the first weeks and months after an unwanted sexual experience, and these early experiences can have a big impact on recovery. We wanted to make sure that survivors had access to CARE in a time when it could be especially helpful.

Yes! You can participate in CARE while you are getting other therapy. You can also participate in CARE even if you've never gotten therapy before.

The goal of our study is to learn more about the impact of the CARE program, and understand the ways that it helps survivors and supporters. We do that by asking people who participate in the program to tell us about how they’re doing and what they thought about the program in questionnaires. So it might seem like a small thing, but by filling out the questionnaires, you're actually helping us learn about CARE and understand how it can be most helpful for survivors and supporters!

Yes! The questionnaires are totally private. Your answers will not be shared with each other. You fill them out on your phone or computer. Only our study team can access the responses to the questionnaires. Your questionnaire responses are never stored with your name or any other identifying information.

The questionnaires ask about topics like how you’ve been feeling, how your relationships are going, and what you thought about the CARE program.

That’s okay- filling out the questionnaires is optional! You would get paid for each questionnaire you fill out, even if you don’t finish all of them.

A support person can be a friend, family member, romantic partner, or any other loved one aged 14+ who already knows about the unwanted sexual experience. More information about eligibility criteria for support people is available here.

No- only the person with the unwanted sexual experience needs to contact us to sign up.

Support people may contact us directly to learn more, or simply pass the information along to a survivor in their life. However, a supporter cannot sign up their survivor: only the survivor can sign themselves up. When supporters reach out to us, we talk with them about the study and how to share the opportunity with a survivor in their life.

No, you do not need have a support person in mind before you contact us! When we talk on the phone, we will help you think about what supporter you might want to invite.

No, you do not need to ask a support person before you contact us! When we talk on the phone, we will tell you about what it’s like to participate so that you can share this information with your support person.

You can switch out your support person for a different person at any point before you come to the first video appointment for the study. After that point, you can decide to withdraw your support person from the study, but you cannot add a new support person.

The survivor and support person would earn $110 each for filling out all 5 of the study questionnaires. You earn different amounts for each questionnaire and you will get paid for each questionnaire you complete. Both survivor and supporter participants will be paid:

• $10 for the questionnaire at the beginning of the first appointment
• $10 for the questionnaire at the end of the first appointment
• $20 for the questionnaire 1 month after the first appointment
• $30 for the questionnaire 2 months after the first appointment
• $40 for the questionnaire 3 months after the first appointment

You will get paid for each questionnaire you complete.

You can choose to be paid in a Visa debit card that we will mail to you, or a gift card (to a major retailer from this list) that we will email to you.

That’s okay- filling out the questionnaires is optional! You would get paid for each questionnaire you fill out, even if you don’t finish all of them.

We thought long and hard about how much money to pay our participants. We wanted to select an amount that’s high enough to appropriately thank participants for their time, but not so high that survivors would feel pressured to sign up for something that they otherwise wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. We decided on $110 total, or $20 per hour for 6 hours of participation, because it is $5 more than the minimum hourly wage in Washington State.

If you work with recent survivors, we would love for you to be a part of our referral network. You can contact us at takecare@uw.edu for more information. Even if you're not a part of our referral network, though, you are always welcome to share our website link with survivors!

We know that nearly all survivors turn to friends, family, and others for support, and most of these supporters feel unsure about how to help. That's why we think that CARE would be an appropriate referral for most survivors within 10 weeks of an assault.

Yes! Survivors don't have to choose between CARE and therapy- they can get both at the same time.

Anyone under the age of 14, anyone whose assault happened more than 10 weeks ago, and anyone with active suicidal intent or symptoms of psychosis would not be a good fit for CARE.