Health Questionairre

[Shadmeister]

Hi, I'm looking to put together a medical/health questionnaire and looking for ideas.........or being pointed in the right direction of suitable templates.

My main aim is to expand on our current questionnaire (for new employees), which purely looks at physical issues, to include mental health. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Cheers

Shad

[Alexis]

bump

[Shadmeister]

Surprised by the lack of response to this post...............are people/companies steering clear of mental health from a health/medical questionnaire point of view?

[bernicarey]

I think it's too big and broad a subject to be included in a general health questionnaire.

You either have few very direct questions such as you might be asked by a nurse at a screening medical, e.g.
Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever considered self harm?
OR, you have to have numerous questions to cover numerous categories.
You might end up with dozens or hundreds of questions, because of covering:
Depression
Bi-Polar
Self-esteem
Anxiety General/Social/Health/PTSD
Eating Disorders
Body Image
OCD
Phobias
Alcohol
Relationships


As to templates, well there's loads out there, just search.
This for example (Warning, it is American) https://www.questionpro.com/survey-temp ... al-health/

[Keith1983]

Whulst I wholeheartedly applaud a business taking an interest in employees mental health I think it would be prudent to make sure it is done from a position of understanding. Are you or any of your employees trained in mental health first aid? If not maybe this would be a really good start and also provide some guidance on what you could ask employees that would actually be useful to them and yourself. It's great gathering information but it needs to be useful and for a good reason.

[Shadmeister]

I think it's too big and broad a subject to be included in a general health questionnaire.

You either have few very direct questions such as you might be asked by a nurse at a screening medical, e.g.
Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever considered self harm?
OR, you have to have numerous questions to cover numerous categories.
You might end up with dozens or hundreds of questions, because of covering:
Depression
Bi-Polar
Self-esteem
Anxiety General/Social/Health/PTSD
Eating Disorders
Body Image
OCD
Phobias
Alcohol
Relationships


As to templates, well there's loads out there, just search.
This for example (Warning, it is American) https://www.questionpro.com/survey-temp ... al-health/

As with any questionnaire this would not be aiming to capture every detail, it would be used as a potential flag for further information.

Whulst I wholeheartedly applaud a business taking an interest in employees mental health I think it would be prudent to make sure it is done from a position of understanding. Are you or any of your employees trained in mental health first aid? If not maybe this would be a really good start and also provide some guidance on what you could ask employees that would actually be useful to them and yourself. It's great gathering information but it needs to be useful and for a good reason.

Totally understand what your saying Keith but sometimes gathering such information can be used to support the requirement for such training ie if the company doesn't have the facility to gather mental health related information then when assessing their first aid 'requirements' it could be deemed that 'mental health' first aid is unnecessary.

[bernicarey]

As with any questionnaire this would not be aiming to capture every detail, it would be used as a potential flag for further information.



Totally understand what your saying Keith but sometimes gathering such information can be used to support the requirement for such training ie if the company doesn't have the facility to gather mental health related information then when assessing their first aid 'requirements' it could be deemed that 'mental health' first aid is unnecessary.

From that statement, and it may just be the way I'm reading it, I don't think you're really getting the idea of assessing the need for workplace First Aid, whether traditional or Mental Health.

From a traditional approach, FA requirements are rarely based on what aliments or medical conditions you have amongst the workforce.

Just because 2 employees have Angina, doesn't make them a significant factor in deciding how many First Aiders are required, of even whether you should have any at all. There might be several employees with far more significant, yet undiagnosed, medical conditions.

Would you suggest basing the need for a workplace AED on the number of staff over 50, the number of staff with Angina or previous history of heart attacks? Because an AED doesn't help with a Heart Attack, only a Cardiac Arrest. A Cardiac Arrest can occur at any age....

Similarly, MH First Aid is how to offer initial support until appropriate professional help is received or until the crisis resolves. It might be that someone is perfectly 'fine' until they start working at your place, and then they get depressed, bullied or otherwise affected by the working conditions or a change in their personal circumstances.

From an employer's point of view, it's about supporting staff to benefit the business, such as reducing absence, not getting statistics to justify having a MH First Aider on the team.

Watch this video and then correlate how your proposed new Employee MH questionnaire fits in with it...
https://www.iod.com/news-campaigns/ment ... tal-health

[Shadmeister]

As with any questionnaire this would not be aiming to capture every detail, it would be used as a potential flag for further information.



Totally understand what your saying Keith but sometimes gathering such information can be used to support the requirement for such training ie if the company doesn't have the facility to gather mental health related information then when assessing their first aid 'requirements' it could be deemed that 'mental health' first aid is unnecessary.

From that statement, and it may just be the way I'm reading it, I don't think you're really getting the idea of assessing the need for workplace First Aid, whether traditional or Mental Health.

From a traditional approach, FA requirements are rarely based on what aliments or medical conditions you have amongst the workforce.

Just because 2 employees have Angina, doesn't make them a significant factor in deciding how many First Aiders are required, of even whether you should have any at all. There might be several employees with far more significant, yet undiagnosed, medical conditions.

Would you suggest basing the need for a workplace AED on the number of staff over 50, the number of staff with Angina or previous history of heart attacks? Because an AED doesn't help with a Heart Attack, only a Cardiac Arrest. A Cardiac Arrest can occur at any age....

Similarly, MH First Aid is how to offer initial support until appropriate professional help is received or until the crisis resolves. It might be that someone is perfectly 'fine' until they start working at your place, and then they get depressed, bullied or otherwise affected by the working conditions or a change in their personal circumstances.

From an employer's point of view, it's about supporting staff to benefit the business, such as reducing absence, not getting statistics to justify having a MH First Aider on the team.

Watch this video and then correlate how your proposed new Employee MH questionnaire fits in with it...
https://www.iod.com/news-campaigns/ment ... tal-health

Thanks for your response Berni. Whilst I totally agree with/understand what your saying I have come across a company that mainly uses contractors and would rather find ways around the situation than helping with it, I am merely trying to deal with this situation the best I can.

[LittleNell83]

I think you need to identify what you want to address and why? Often pre work questionnaires identify areas of support which may be required to provide people with the tools etc to do their job. I would be careful not to fall foul of the pitfalls of equality laws with this type of questionnaire, especially as there is still a stigma or shame associated with moor mental health for lots of people. It may be worth asking you HR team if they have anything they can advise- they may include such questions on the pre-employment survey? Also, if your company has Occ Health- they may be able to help.

In line with GDPR you would also need to inform employees how this information will be used, and to reassure them that it won't be used to discriminate against them should they answer yes. It will also require following up to ensure there hasn't been a negative change in an employee's mental health.

My organisation is looking to introduce 'temperature checks' which rate issues on a scale of one to five such as feeling overwhelmed, workload, culture etc. The idea is this is data is anonymously collected, and used to develop our mental health strategy.

Yours,
Nell