The GSD has today launched a mental health survey #HealthyMindsMatter, to coincide with World Mental Health day. The survey is aimed at attempting to obtain a glimpse into the inner well being of members in our community, together with identifying how our mental health service is performing and how it can be improved.

Shadow Minister for Health Lawrence Llamas MP said “The potential value of carrying out a survey was first floated around in July last year by Dr Ian Banks from the European Men’s Mental Health forum when he visited Gibraltar as part of the GHA Men’s Health Sessions.

During the budget this year I stated how I believed it was important for us to focus our attention on mental health and survey the community. We need to have a better understanding of the deeply rooted issues affecting our community and how best to tackle them. I therefore encourage everyone to take part, regardless whether you are a student or health professional, whether you have experience with mental health issues or not, it is a good opportunity for us as a community to share our feelings and experiences as one, for the benefit of all in a completely anonymous way ”

The actual questions are mainly based on a combination of questions used in surveys around the world, in particular by the Care Quality Commission in the UK. Additionally, we have also carried out a consultation exercise with relevant local groups who deal with mental health issues on a daily basis, these groups have provided a very useful perspective into how we could further adapt or rephrase questions to maximise the results.

The survey has 50 questions and is estimated to take a maximum 10 minutes, depending on the questions you wish to answer. The first part is to do with general wellbeing, whilst the second part is targeted at service users, families and friends, to identify how Gibraltar currently caters in terms of: care and treatment; care planning; medicines and therapies; support and wellbeing.

The survey shall remain open for two weeks, following which, full statistics shall be made available for all to see. We hope to compare some of the results with those available elsewhere, but more importantly, we believe the survey should be carried out every two years so we can closely monitor our very own results moving forward.

Hard copies of the survey are available at GSD HQ and can be deposited into a sealed box in order to preserve anonymity.

The online survey can be found here;

www.tiny.cc/gsdsurvey

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Catch the press conference on the link below;

Healthy Minds Matter Survey

Posted by GSD Media on Wednesday, October 10, 2018