Mental Wellbeing Survey 2023

• It's an annual survey, being conducted by a team of researchers at RMIT as part of broader efforts to improve mental wellbeing across the University.
• The survey is voluntary and anonymous.
• The 2023 survey is the third in the series, with the first survey having run back in 2021.
• In 2023, the survey is running from early August to early September, with two different time periods for staff and students.
• All staff and students, aged 18 years old or over and based onshore in Australia, are invited to participate.  
• The survey asks staff and students about four main things: 1) what they think about RMIT’s general approach to supporting mental wellbeing, 2) how they feel about their work or study, 3) experiences and impacts of several psychosocial factors in their work or study area and 4) their wellbeing. 
  
• RMIT believes that feeling well is fundamental to studying, working, and living well. The survey helps us to demonstrate that improvements in mental wellbeing can lead to improvements in learning, teaching, and all business across the University. 
• The survey results play an important role in informing further mental wellbeing initiatives across RMIT.

The survey is open to all current RMIT staff and students who are aged 18 or over and based onshore in Australia.

• The Mental Wellbeing Survey is the first multi-year effort at RMIT to better understand mental wellbeing among staff and students over time.
• The staff engagement survey and Student Experience Survey both feature some similar wellbeing-related questions. However, the Mental Wellbeing Survey specifically includes standardised measures of mental wellbeing and wellbeing “climate”. It also aims to understand what drives psychosocial risk – an understanding that is vital for helping to formulate protective strategies that can reduce risk, improve safety, and increase wellbeing.
  
• The results of the Mental Wellbeing Survey will not be used to rate the performance of particular courses, work areas or staff. The “climate” focus of this survey is about RMIT as a whole. The survey aims to better understand how the "climate" at RMIT relates to staff members' and students' mental wellbeing, and how it can therefore inform mental wellbeing initiatives.
• The survey is also not just a project at RMIT. It’s part of a broader effort to strengthen the evidence base on mental wellbeing, psychosocial safety, and psychosocial risk in higher education. To this end, we received research ethics approval from the College Human Ethics Advisory Network (CHEAN) for the College of Design and Social Context (Reference number: 26406).

• The survey asks staff and students to anonymously rate their opinion about RMIT’s Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), their mental wellbeing, and their feelings about study or work.
• The survey included standardised questions about senior management, organisational culture, and organisational communication. Staff and students are not asked to rate specific individuals – ratings focus on RMIT as a whole.
• The wellbeing questions ask about signs of positive mental health and wellbeing via a standardised, validated measure called the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF). Survey questions will not ask about symptoms of mental ill health (e.g., depression and anxiety) or psychological distress.
• The psychosocial risk questions ask whether staff and students have experienced specific situations, within the context of work or study, which may put their mental health and wellbeing at risk – and, if so, how impacted they have been by these situations.
• The survey includes questions about emotional exhaustion and engagement in relation to work or study.
• There is also an optional, open-ended question in survey – this is a space where staff and students can submit free-text comments to provide more context to their answers and offer more specific feedback if they wish. All comments and feedback submitted are de-identified before analysis.
• The survey also asks for basic demographic information to help us understand which factors might influence mental wellbeing, PSC, or psychosocial risk. Providing this information is optional. Responses won’t be used to identify individuals.

• One aim of the survey is to understand how staff and students rate RMIT’s Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC).  
• Just as people experience ups and downs in mental wellbeing, organisations such as RMIT have a wellbeing “climate” that also goes up and down over long periods of time. 
• Many factors shape our experiences of health and wellbeing. ‘Psychosocial’ refers to the combined influence of psychological and social factors on a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. In a work setting, examples of factors can include team dynamics or relationships with one’s colleagues. In a study setting, examples of factors can include degree of connectedness students feel to one another, their teachers, and the learning environment.
• The PSC measure (PSC-4) used in this survey is called a lead indicator – meaning it predicts what might be coming. 
• Evidence strongly suggests that enhancing PSC at RMIT can increase positive outcomes (e.g., resulting in deeper learning, greater social connectedness, and healthier behaviours) and reduce negative outcomes (e.g., resulting in lower rates of staff turnover, lower rates of student withdrawal, less depression and anxiety, and less excessive taking of leave). 
• PSC includes all aspects of RMIT and how it works – from everyday teaching and learning experiences, through management of large Schools and Colleges, and all the way up to executive decisions that affect all of RMIT. As such, PSC encourages us to think of wellbeing among everyone, as well as throughout everything that we do. Wellbeing is not limited to support services for those who need it – although these are, of course, an important part of the continuum of supports.

• The survey is voluntary and anonymous.
• The survey data are initially managed by the principal investigator, who de-identifies all responses. The de-identified responses are then shared with researchers in the Health, Safety and Wellbeing area, who complete quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data.
• High-level results are shared with Colleges, clusters, and portfolios. Summaries of the findings are also shared across staff and student communities at RMIT.
• The survey data and findings are used to inform and enhance proactive strategies across RMIT that aim to promote and protect mental wellbeing, and that seek to enhance PSC over time.

• De-identified group results for staff and students will be shared with Colleges and portfolios. More detailed additional information will also be provided where there are special arrangements in place with specific Schools and Groups, but results will still be de-identified.
• RMIT will use the survey data and findings to improve wellbeing practices across RMIT and – over time – the “climate” for psychosocial safety throughout the University. This is an ongoing and evolving process. The survey is an important source of data to evaluate how well we are supporting staff and students in their experiences of university life at RMIT.
• The survey data and findings will inform mental wellbeing initiatives that are designed and implemented across RMIT. They will also help us to evaluate how – and how well – the University is tracking against the Mental Wellbeing Strategic Action Plan (2020-2025).  

• There are very minimal risks for participants. The risk is not zero, though, and participants will be encouraged to seek support if they experience any negative outcomes. 
• There are also very low privacy or security risks. The research will be conducted in line with RMIT's Privacy Statement.
• Benefits of participating include enhancing our understanding of how staff and students experience university life at RMIT – particularly in relation to mental wellbeing. The survey generates important insights that enable RMIT to better support staff and students. Additionally, improvements in PSC will have general effects across both staff and student populations at RMIT.

• If you have any non-urgent queries about the Mental Wellbeing Survey, please contact Dr Lachlan Kent (Project Lead) at lachlan.kent@rmit.edu.au or the Wellbeing and Psychosocial Safety team at RMITWellbeing@rmit.edu.au.
• If you have any ethical concerns about the project, questions about your rights as a participant, or you or any third parties wish to lodge a complaint about the study or the way it’s being conducted, please contact humanethics@rmit.edu.au and include the reference number 26406.

Students

Staff

The Mental Wellbeing Survey asks about several psychosocial factors that pose a risk to mental health and wellbeing including workload management, bullying and harassment, fairness, civility and respect, traumatic events, violence and aggression, and inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature.

If you have specific concerns that you would like to report to RMIT, please follow the guidance below:

• Staff – you can visit this Sharepoint page for details about different reporting pathways.
• Students – you can report any threatening or unwanted behaviour (including sexual harm, bullying, harassment, or violence) via RMIT Safer Community by calling +61 3 9925 2396 and/or emailing safercommunity@rmit.edu.au. If you’re concerned about fairness, study load, or exposure to traumatic content, please consult a staff member you trust at RMIT. You can also visit the student complaints webpage for more information.

The Mental Wellbeing Survey is being conducted as part of collaborative research that involves a team of researchers at RMIT. The team brings together staff from the College of Design and Social Context and staff from the Health, Safety and Wellbeing area.

• College of Design and Social Context
  • Dr Katrin Leifels (Principal Investigator)
  • Associate Professor Christina Scott-Young

• Health, Safety and Wellbeing
  • Dr Lachlan Kent (Project Lead)
  • Michael Swadling
  • Xuan Luu
  • Leya Hockman