RVBH offering online mental health assessment
Oct. 25—Community members can now take a survey to determine the state of their mental health through the Owensboro Health and RiverValley Behavioral Health online platform called CredibleMind.
The online platform is a database with a digital library of physician-approved and vetted information and resources regarding mental and behavioral health.
CredibleMind works with organizations and health care providers to also link individuals with local resources available to address mental and behavioral health needs in their own community, in addition to providing free access to its database.
The survey, a mental health assessment, asks questions regarding an individual's living situation, means of transportation, financial state, family and social life, emotional support system, relationships, substance use, sleeping habits, as well as several other topics that might affect a person's mental well-being.
At the end of the survey, participants will be given results that tell them which areas of their life they are having difficulties with.
The purpose of the survey is to provide individuals with an idea of what areas of their life they are struggling with the most and connect them with credible and validated online resources and local resources that will help them begin their journey to healing their mind, according to Dr. James Tidwell, OH vice president of Population Health Services.
"What Credible Minds did is they pulled together questions on a bunch of different topics that may influence or factor into a person's mental health," he said.
Those topics, according to Tidwell, are called social determinants of health.
"Of all the different things that factor into a person's health, the things we do within the walls of the hospital and within our clinic account for about 10% of the influence on a person's health," he said. "Our greater influence and what we do a health care providers are these other determinants that come from social interactions and other factors in life. And those include the stability of your relationship at home, your ability to have transportation from your home to the grocery store or to you doctor or a myriad of other things that determine a person's health; those are the social determinants of health and a lot of the questions in this assessment kind of revolve around social determinants."
The website, HealthyMind.CredibleMind.org, also allows visitors to create an account where they have access to multiple surveys and information regarding various mental health topics. The perks of creating an account are that the website saves survey results and allows members to look back on survey results and resources related to survey topics.
Additionally, according to Tidwell, visitors of the site can rest assured that the information provided is accurate and credible.
"If you just put 'anxiety' in a search engine on the internet, it could produce a number of different sites that would come up but you don't know where that information is coming from or how true or well-studied any of that information is; that's why CredibleMinds is such a good resource. Everything on the site has been vetted by healthcare professionals and experts," he said.
It also links visitors to local resources should they need professional help or assistance in any related topics, which he said is unique and important for people to know what services are available near them to assist with any mental health needs.
Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360
