How Mental Health Survey Questions Can Help With Collecting Feedback

Mental Health Survey Questions – Why it’s important & best practices collecting feedback

Collecting client feedback in the mental health industry is complex. There are several things to consider ranging from how the survey questions are worded to how the feedback will be collected. Collecting such survey data plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of programs at schools, hospitals and mental health facilities.

So how can your organization improve productivity and effectiveness with anonymous mental health feedback survey? We have prepared this article to share with you our years of experience on this topic. We will review the importance of feedback, when and how you can obtain it, best practices, and examples for mental health survey questions you can use.

Why do we need mental health feedback?

Embracing feedback in mental health practices empowers professionals to craft treatments as unique as the individuals they serve. By incorporating regular survey input from clients, visits become a personalized journey that resonates with their specific needs and preferences.

Whether you work in a school, hospital, or private practice, you share one goal in common, dedicated to help the clients you serve. In order to be able to do this most effective, your clientele needs to be involved and this is why mental health feedback is so important.

Ways to use the feedback

Insights through Feedback

Feedback and surveys can be used to learn valuable information that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible, such as the history of the community you serve or specific issues you weren’t aware of before. Additionally, It can tell you when staff members are treating people in ways that make them feel uncomfortable, angry, or otherwise disrespected.

Improve care and support

Soliciting client feedback is one of the best ways to identify gaps in care and show you whether your methods are working. By asking them about specific aspects of theirs experience. In this way, you can get a better understanding of the quality of care being received versus what you perceive you’re providing.

To encourage steady engagement

When people feel they’re being listened to and their opinion matters, it can help improve client engagement, critical in improving retention and outcomes.

Respond accordingly to changes

There may be social or cultural differences within the population you’re working with or other circumstances that influence your program or service. Being able to spot and respond accordingly to these with feedback can keep your program valuable and practical.

Best practices when asking mental health survey questions

When drafting a feedback survey using mental health questions, it’s essential to ask the right questions. Regarding mental health, questions are most effective when they are short, concise, and relevant.

Depending on your goals for obtaining feedback and the setting you’re in, the questions asked could differ. However, it is always best to be trauma-informed in your questioning. In other words, have a compassionate, empathetic approach towards any population while assuming a trauma history. Feedback surveys are an easy way to get direct anonymous mental health data from clients.

Examples of mental health survey questions:

When creating a survey we often get asked What questions should I ask in a mental health survey? We have carefully crafted the below questions to help you jumpstart your next survey.

Do you feel you have access to mental health resources?
Are you aware of the services available to you?
If someone you knew talked about their mental health issues with you, how would you respond?
Overall, how would you rate your mental health?
Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental health condition?
Is there anything that makes talking about mental health uncomfortable?
Is there anything we can do to make you feel safer here?

Mental Health Survey Questions – Categories

Overall Well-Being:

How would you rate your overall mental health and well-being?
How would you describe your emotional stability and resilience in the face of life’s challenges?
To what extent do you feel a sense of purpose or fulfillment in your daily life?
Are there specific areas of your life where you feel content, and conversely, are there areas causing significant distress?
Are there any challenges you face in your daily life that significantly affect your mental health?

Stress Levels & Emotional State

On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your current stress levels?
Can you identify specific factors or situations that contribute most to your current stress levels?
How well do you feel you cope with stress?
How often do you experience feelings of anxiety or depression?

Work-Life Balance:

How satisfied are you with your current work-life balance?
How often do you find yourself able to disconnect from work-related concerns during your personal time?
In your opinion, does your current work schedule allow for a healthy balance between professional and personal life?
Relationships & Self-Esteem
How would you describe the quality of your relationships with family and friends?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your self-esteem?

Suicidal Thoughts:

Have you had any thoughts of self-harm or suicide recently?

Access to Support Services:

Are you aware of and do you have access to mental health support services in your community?

When to Utilize Satisfaction Surveys – Essential 6

Feedback is often gathered at the end of a program or service, but there are multiple stages where collecting survey data can be highly beneficial. Based on extensive experience and industry best practices, we identify these as The Essential 6 on Timing:

1. During Program Development:

Gathering feedback during the development phase is crucial. Engaging your network early helps shape the program to better meet participant needs. This approach is also effective when making adjustments to existing programs—seeking feedback before finalizing changes ensures they are well-informed and effective.

2. Throughout Program Operation:

Continuous feedback during the operation of a program is invaluable. Real-time data collection allows for immediate adjustments, enhancing the program’s effectiveness and participant satisfaction. This iterative approach ensures the program remains responsive and relevant.

3. Post-Completion:

Conducting surveys after a program concludes provides comprehensive insights into its success and areas for improvement. This critical feedback phase helps in evaluating the overall impact and guides future program enhancements.

4. At Major Milestones:

For long-term initiatives, it is beneficial to gather feedback at significant milestones. We see this one get overlooked far too often. This practice helps assess progress and make informed adjustments at key points, ensuring the program stays on track and meets its objectives.

5. During Mental Health Awareness Month:

Leveraging feedback surveys during Mental Health Awareness Month can be particularly impactful. This period of heightened focus on mental health provides an ideal opportunity to check in with participants and gather valuable insights. It underscores your commitment to their well-being and can lead to more meaningful engagement.

6. Before Annual Reviews or Strategy Sessions:

Conducting satisfaction surveys prior to annual reviews or strategic planning sessions can be seen as controversial. While some may view it as a tactic to temporarily boost morale, this proactive approach actually unlocks actionable insights that are crucial for long-term planning.

By strategically timing your surveys, you can gather valuable data that helps the leadership team make informed adjustments during these key strategy meetings. This ensures that strategic initiatives are not only grounded in real feedback but also focused on sustainable improvements.

Mental health survey questions for employees

Mental health is an important topic that should to be addressed in the workplace and not just within medical practices. Responsible employers should strongly consider implementing a mental health survey for employees to learn more about their Mental health status as it relates to the workplace, especially in this ‘post-covid’ workplace we are in today.

The survey could potentially ask questions around mental health diagnoses, additional support or tools necessary to do their job and how mental health affects work performance. Also the survey could ask about employees attitudes towards mental health in general and whether they feel comfortable discussing mental health issues at work.

By conducting a mental health survey, employers can gain valuable insights into their employees mental health needs and take important steps to create a more supportive work environment.

Consider This…

A client we have worked with for many years made this analogy. Think about how workplaces often provide ergonomic desks and fitness programs to support physical health. These initiatives prevent injuries and boost productivity. Similarly, mental health impacts work performance, but often gets less attention.

An employee struggling with anxiety or depression might face significant barriers to productivity, just like someone with a physical ailment. By implementing a mental health survey, employers can identify these issues and provide necessary support, creating a more supportive work environment.

Just as ergonomic desks improve physical health, mental health surveys help address and support employees’ mental well-being, leading to a healthier, more productive workplace.

Sample Mental Health Survey Questions for Employees in the workplace

1. To what extent do you feel that your workplace is supportive of your mental health?
2. How would you rate the level of stress that you experience in your role?
3. Do you have access to resources and support for mental health concerns when needed?
4. Do you believe that your coworkers are understanding and supportive of your mental health needs?
5. How often do you feel overwhelmed while at work?
6. To what degree do you feel comfortable discussing any mental health issues with your supervisor or manager?
7. Are there any aspects of your job that make it difficult to maintain good mental health?
8. Is there anything in particular that could be done to improve the overall wellness environment in the workplace?
9. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with the availability of mental health services offered by the company/organization (1 being least, 10 being most)?
10. Are there any changes or improvements that could be made in order for employees to feel more secure and comfortable when discussing their mental wellbeing at work?

How can you obtain honest feedback?

Obtaining honest feedback is more natural when the participants have felt they play a valuable role and their voice will be heard. Suppose they’ve been invited to participate in planning and to implement their service or education or treatment. In that case, they’ll be far more comfortable providing honest and helpful feedback on the process, content, and results within.

A few things can influence feedback:

A person’s objective perspective- based on facts, observation, and past knowledge.
Or a subjective one- based on emotional reactions, defensiveness, loyalty (to family, friends, or class), cultural gaps, or distrust of outsiders.
Limited knowledge of an issue or process, lack of information, or understanding of the information available.

Feedback can be given in several ways, and it’s essential to pay attention to which ones work best for your particular setting and environment.

How to set up survey questions for mental health campaigns

When creating mental health survey questions, consider its goals and audience. Campaign-related inquiries should yield useful data for campaign decisions.

First, choose a survey type before creating mental health campaign survey questions. Open-ended, multiple choice, Likert-scale, semantic differential, matrix style, and ranking scales exist. These types may be employed depending on the survey’s goal and information needed. Likert-scale questions are good for measuring issue attitudes.

Second, create measurable, meaningful questions. Questions must be well worded to ensure correct responses from participants. When creating questions, cultural and other biases must be considered. Surveys should avoid technical terminology to achieve this. If the campaign is multi-cultural or multinational, surveys may need to be translated.

Thirdly, mental health campaign surveys should include data analysis. Surveys need multiple question types to compare findings at different levels (e.g., individual responses vs overall trends). As well as thinking about what types of data will yield useful insights for campaign planning (e.g., demographics like age group or gender), it’s important to think about how many questions are needed to generate meaningful results versus too many, which could lead to fatigue among respondents and invalid responses/data collection errors in extreme cases.

Finally, pilot test each question before collecting replies from respondents to ensure they are clear, suitable, and legitimate, i.e., they don’t ask leading or double-barrel questions that could bias findings. If careful attention isn’t taken during development, this can easily happen! Pilot testing with a few volunteers in the target population can identify difficulties before launch and generate a rigorous questionnaire that provides helpful data for future mental health campaign decisions!