My Relationship with Psychological Tests
In the past year, I’ve heard the words “psychological tests” more than my own name. These words have resonated across my mind more than any other thought. We’ve all studied psychological tests in several classes here at McGill, but my interest in them pushed me to pursue my year-long project (PSYC 494) investigating them .
My journey started in early September with Dr. Stotland. He proposed a project to me, and I was very ecstatic to take part of it. I told my self, there is nothing better than having mental health and primary health care combined in a single project!
Him and his team developed what they called the “ Psychological Wellness Screening Questionnaire” (PWSQ). They compiled validated measures of 21 psychological problems (anxiety, depression, anger, sleep disturbance, attention deficit disorder, stress, self-esteem, basic needs, life satisfaction, eating moderation, alcohol, drugs, gambling, smoking intensity, smoking urge, binge eating, weight concern, and exercise motivation), and added questions about patients’ self-perceptions of problems and their stage of change in addressing them. In addition, they included items that assessed the patient’s subjective evaluation of the screening procedure; these items were presented after the questionnaire was completed and the results were presented.
The questionnaire was implemented at a clinic in Montreal, to improve the overall healthcare that patients receive there. It intended to do so by giving the doctor a psychological background of his/her patients, and therefore bridge the gap between primary care and mental health services. Four family doctors participated in the study, and all of them were optimistic in implementing such a new measure in their practice. All patients were recruited via email and completed the questionnaire online. Due to some technical issues and problems with ethics and anonymity, only 88 patients took the questionnaire (around 35 completed all of it).
Of course, the data collected does not really allow us to test any hypothesis or predict outcomes in the future. However, this project is definitely a great start to a new approach in primary health care. As I sit down to write my analysis, I am very happy to have taken part of such an initiate. Now that the “pilot” project is over, a few changes are going to be made, and the questionnaire will then target more patients. Hopefully then, more clinics will start to implement it across Montreal!
Ammar Saed Aldien- 260506822
