Expression of Interest List-Contact Agreement

Thank you for expressing your interest in participating in the study to develop DepressionAssist, a website for close family members, partners or friends of people with major depressive disorder.

Project Sponsor Barwon Health
Collaborating Institutions Deakin University, Australian Society for Bipolar & Depressive Disorders Ltd and Servier
Principal Investigator Dr Lesley Berk
Associate Investigators Professor Michael Berk, Dr Jerry Lai, Catherine Mazza, Sondita Mein, Anna Wrobel, Madeleine McCallum, Sarah Croce, Anthony Phillips, Lucy Saunders, Josie O'Donohue, Claire Young, Lauren McDonald, Beth O’Gorman, Emma Rice
IMPACT SRC
HERB Building
University Hospital Geelong
PO Box 281
Geelong, 3220


What are you agreeing to by giving your name and contact details?

By providing your name, email address and/or phone number and the date, you agree to being on the Expression of Interest List for the above mentioned study so the researchers can contact you when it starts to discuss:

  1. The study
  2. What is involved in participation
  3. Whether or not you would like to participate



Please note that you will only be contacted by the researchers and for no other reason than in regard to this research study. We ask that you provide both your email and phone number as then it is easier for us to contact you, but you can select to provide only one or the other if you prefer.

If you decide to go onto the Expression of Interest List we will contact you as soon as Depression Assist is ready for participants to access the website and give their feedback. This is so you can make an informed decision about whether to participate at that stage.

Deciding to participate does not automatically mean you will be accepted into the study as the study includes specific inclusion criteria. For more information about these criteria and what is involved in participating please see the Participant Information Sheet here. Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have any questions regarding the study.

What will happen to the information you provide?

In order to safeguard your privacy and confidentiality, the information you provide will be securely stored online at Barwon Health in a password protected file, accessible only for research purposes by the named researchers on this study. If you do not go on to participate in the study, this information will be deleted. If you go on to participate in the study, your information will continue to be stored in password protected files on our secure database or secure cabinets under lock and key. Only named researchers and Barwon Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) will have access to this information, including your identifiable data, in order to run this intervention study and for regulation purposes (please see the Participant Information Sheet section 10 for more detail).

Being on the expression of interest list is entirely voluntary

We do not want you to feel obliged in any way to provide your name and contact details and this is entirely voluntary. You can also contact us at any time and ask to be taken off the expression of interest list, and this will not affect your relationship with the researchers, or any future research projects you decide to participate in.

If you have questions

You are encouraged to ask the researchers any questions you may have about the agreement before providing your contact details for the list. The research team can be contacted via phone on 0456 755 552 or via email at depression-assist@deakin.edu.au.

Please note:If the person you support has experienced depression in the context of bipolar disorder, the current study may not suit your situation. It is specifically for those who support a person with major depressive disorder. Another of our research studies, BipolarASSIST, focuses on those who care for a person with bipolar disorder. If you would like more information on BipolarASSIST please contact us by email at bipolarwise@deakin.edu.au or phone 0459 965 545. To register your interest in BipolarASSIST please follow the link here.

To register your expression of interest

Please fill in the expression of interest form by clicking on form button: