Health unit’s phone survey aims to explore mental-health issues

The local health unit launched a phone survey Tuesday to get a better picture of the mental-health issues people face in Windsor-Essex and what services they need most.

“We are limited to the data that we currently have access to, and a lot of it comes from national surveys,” said Nicole Dupuis, director of health promotion for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. “The problem with national surveys is that sometimes if we want to dig deeper about issues related to our local population. We just don’t have a large enough sample size within some of those surveys to really do a good analysis.”

The survey, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, will run until Jan. 21. The company will be randomly calling land lines and cellphones. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete.

Dupuis said it stems from changing public health standards, as well as a community assessment the health unit did in 2016. That study revealed that a top priority for residents was more information and services relating to mental health.

“This is the next step for that,” she said. “You said mental health, now we need to look at what, exactly. Where do we start, what are

some of the issues that we can all work on?”

People will be asked about how many hours of sleep they’re getting, how they rate their overall mental health, and their resiliency and ability to bounce back from stress. Other questions focus on peoples’ attitudes toward mental health, what they think contributes to mental health, if they have anyone to talk to about their problems, and their awareness of available services.

“It’s meant to give us a baseline starting point,” said Dupuis.

The information will be gathered into a report along with some recommendations about what resources, programs and services will be needed over the next few years.

“This allows us to break apart some of what might come from a national survey and ask more specific questions, or get a better sense of what the issues are for WindsorEssex,” said Dupuis.

Anyone with questions or concerns about the survey can call the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit at 519-258-2146 or visit the health unit website.

It’s meant to give us a baseline starting point. This allows us to ... get a better sense of what the issues are for Windsor-Essex.