Origin of the mental health check

The online mental health check was developed by Professor dr. Ronny Bruffaerts, head of the Center for Public Health Psychiatry (KU Leuven), in close collaboration with researchers from Ghent University (Maarten Vansteenkiste, Katrijn Brenning, Alexis Dewaele, Gwendolyn Portzky, Eva Dejaegere), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Imke Baetens), KU Leuven (Patrick Luyten, Laurence Claes), Thomas More (Tom Van Daele) and Valérie Van Hees (SIHO). The development of the test is part of the Flemish College Surveys (FLECS), a research project of the KU Leuven that was evaluated and approved by the Research Ethics Committee UZ/KU Leuven (S62111).

Content of the mental health check

The mental health check aims to screen the psychological health of students in higher education. The screener consists of 20 items related to resilience, the basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness and competence) and emotional problems (such as anxiety, depression or eating disorders). Quality-of-life issues (such as poorer sleep) and their impact on students’ everyday life are also surveyed. The items in the test were selected from validated scientific instruments.

Feedback report

Based on your answers, a personal feedback report will display with a brief summary and related advice concerning your mental health. The advice is not a diagnosis, just an indication of how your mental health is at the moment. It is a snapshot and does not take into account specific circumstances or personal variables such as age or gender.

This test cannot replace a consultation with a doctor or other professional. If you are experiencing psychological complaints, you should contact a GP or counsellor.

At MoodSpace.be you will find a lot of information about where you can get help.

Of course, this test cannot offer any prognosis of the future. It is therefore not suitable to make a prognosis about possible future problems.

Data processing

The test is strictly anonymous which means that you are not asked to provide personal data. For statistical purposes, information about your age and gender is requested. However, these answers can never be traced back to specific persons.

Policy reporting and scientific research

The collected anonymised data are used at group level for policy advice and scientific research. Every year, the Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO) reports to the Flemish government on how many students use the self-test and what the overall results are. These results are also used to further optimise the self-test and the feedback report, as well as the general help offered on MoodSpace.

The evaluation of the mental health check and the scientific processing of the results is done in collaboration with dr. Ronny Bruffaerts, professor of psychiatry at KU Leuven and principal investigator of MoodSpace.

Copyright

For this test, as for the entire site, the texts, lay-out, images, scripts and other items fall under the protection of copyright. They are the property of the Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education or the partners with whom SIHO cooperates for this offer. Copies, adaptations, translations, adaptations, changes of the whole or any part of this site, in any form or in any way, are strictly prohibited, unless prior written permission has been granted by the owner of the site: Steunpunt Inclusief Hoger Onderwijs, Hoogpoort 15, B-9000 Ghent. Any infringement may lead to civil or criminal prosecution.