Mental Health & Well-Being Survey
© Jamani Caillet
On Monday, 21 November 2022, members of the EPFL community (Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students, and scientific, academic, administrative and technical staff members) were asked to complete a survey on mental health and well-being. This survey comes under the responsibility of the Task Force Mental Health & Well-Being, which was set up by the Associate Vice Presidency for Student Affairs and Outreach (AVP-SAO), led by Prof. Kathryn Hess Bellwald.
The aim of this survey was to pinpoint the issues affecting mental health within the EPFL community, to identify the community’s needs and to determine what measures need to implemented. Based on these results, the Task Force develops a mental health strategy for EPFL that includes a series of practical actions and measures to promote well-being throughout the community.
For purposes of anonymity and data confidentiality, this survey was conducted by Unisanté (Center for Primary Care and Public Health). The answers provided were anonymized and kept in strict confidence. Unisanté didn’t share any individual information with EPFL, only aggregated results that cannot be used to identify the respondents.
Summary
- While members of the EPFL community were under no obligation to take part in the survey, participation was strongly encouraged in order to build the most representative picture possible.
- Unisanté has been hired to conduct the survey and collect the data on EPFL’s behalf.
- The data were anonymized, and Unisanté transmitted no personal information to the School.
- Unisanté analyzed the survey data in early 2023.
- The findings complement ongoing thinking by the Task Force Mental Health & Well-Being, which will submit recommendations to the EPFL Direction by the summer of 2023.
- A report on the survey findings will be made available to the EPFL community by the summer of 2023.
- The first actions will be implemented at the start of the 2023/2024 academic year.
- A few years from now, community members will receive a new questionnaire in order to assess the effectiveness of the measures implemented.
- Unisanté treated respondents’ information in strict confidence.
- Unisanté didn’t link the respondents’ name, email address or IP address to their answers.
- In keeping with the anonymous nature of this survey, Unisanté:
- destroyed, at the end of the data-collection stage, any variables that could be used to identify respondents by name
- only reported sociodemographic data for groups of 10 people or more
- destroyed, at the end of the process, the record of respondents’ email addresses that it will have been provided.
- Unisanté retains the raw, anonymized data on its server for 10 years or until EPFL requests that the data be deleted, whichever comes first.
The Survey Working Group within the Task Force Mental Health & Well-Being began by discussing the topics to be covered by the survey with Unisanté. The final list of topics and scales was approved by this working group and by the Task Force, whose members include subject-matter experts and representatives of the constituent parts and bodies of the EPFL community. The questionnaire was then developed by Unisanté based on proven survey instruments, which were adapted to make them suitable for the EPFL community. The results were analyzed by Unisanté, which reported the findings to EPFL.