PUTRAJAYA, Nov 5 — The Public Service Department (PSD) today launched the Holistic Wellbeing Inventory (IKH), an online psychological test system to evaluate the psychological wellbeing of civil servants.
The IKH evaluates six main domains, namely, emotional wellbeing, life satisfaction, psychological functionality, social wellbeing, work wellbeing and mental health.
According to Public Service director-general Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of some people with the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) which also affected their psychological wellbeing through anxiety, fear and feeling of isolation when practising physical distancing.
“If this matter is not addressed effectively, it could trigger a negative reaction to human physiology, making them prone to stress, illness or experiencing less cognitive functionality. This will also affect their work performance.”
Mohd Khairul Adib said this when launching the IKH and officiating the 24th Public Service Psychological Conference which was held online via PSD Facebook page today. The conference, themed “New Norms in Psychological Service: Digital Intervention”, is being held for three days on November 5, 9 and 11 to celebrate the World Mental Health Day.
Citing the Health Ministry’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) statistics, Mohd Khairul Adib said during the MCO and the recovery MCO period, a total of 64,366 people have sought psychological service, in which 55 per cent sought Psychological First Aid and 22.5 per cent on mental health issues.
For civil servants, he said 15,000 individuals had received counselling service as of September 2020.
For the same period, he said the demand for psychological service was not only limited to the conventional method but also through digital intervention such as guidance, counselling, psychotherapy and psychological evaluation to provide an immediate response, especially for emergency cases.
“Digital delivery service allows customers to seek advice, support or intervention without being limited by the geographical, time, cost or physical factors. It can even increase public service delivery especially in addressing the issue of low-performing officers,” he said.
However, the human touch element remained the key factor in ensuring the effectiveness and customer’s satisfaction for the services provided.
“In some situations, the conventional psychological service delivery is still relevant according to current condition or individual needs,” he said.
— Bernama
