{"id":26092,"date":"2019-07-02T09:08:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=26092"},"modified":"2019-07-02T09:08:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:08:34","slug":"mental-health-profiling-vital-to-assess-civil-servants-psychological-functioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/mental-health-profiling-vital-to-assess-civil-servants-psychological-functioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health profiling vital to assess civil servants&#8217; psychological functioning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a>The word \u201cprofile\u201d may not be unfamiliar to many. It always refers to\npersonality when used. Profiles carry some information about a person\u2019s life,\nwork, character, behaviour and hobbies. In our attempt to describe somebody, we\nwill gather as much information of the person as possible. This is profiling\nactivity. Basically, profiling is a scientific activity.<\/a>&nbsp;It is understood as an activity of\nrecording and analysing an individual&#8217;s psychological and behavioural\ntendencies, preferences and characteristics in order to get a better\ndescription of how the individual functions and how likely they would&nbsp;be\nfunctioning in the future, based on the criteria of their psychological characteristics\nand traits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As a scientific activity and\ninquiry, profiling does not depend on any blunt assumption or stereotype of a\nperson\u2019s behaviour and character to base any judgement on him\/her, as this\nwould result in a very unfair accusation. Adhering to the empirical principle\nlike this would help us avoid any misperceptions or misleads about a particular\nperson at any given point of time. Similarly, when it comes to mental health\nprofiling, we accumulate and gather as much information for a specific person\nat hand, and we thoroughly and objectively as possible measure his or her\nmental health stability and psychological functioning, through the utilisation\nof standard and empirical psychological assessment tools. Lastly, how the\nmental health profiling is done and what do we do with the information that we\nhave is also crucial for the rest of the person\u2019s life, his family and country,\nand that such profiling services and qualifications can only be achieved through\nprofessional training from recognised universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is not uncommon to\ndo a profiling in mental health service sector. This service has been doing\nvery well in the developed countries. Therefore, there should be nothing to be\nworried about when it comes to implementation in other countries for its\nbenefits. The main objective of mental health profiling aims at recognising the\neducation and healthcare facilities that the person needs in order to help him\nor her to fully contribute to the society and country, and at the same time the\nservice providers can deliver their service correctly and directly to them as among\nthe group of people in need. In addition to that, information obtained from\nmental health profiling helps us to promulgate better mental health policies in\nthe future so that there would be no difficulties arising from any\nmisinformation of negligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Malaysia, adopting the assessment\napproach to determine the status or mental health functioning of a person is yet\nto be considered important.&nbsp;As a result, it is not a requirement yet, either at the\ndepartmental level in any ministry or in any agency&nbsp;of the private sectors.&nbsp;Currently,\nit is only the&nbsp;Psychology Services&nbsp;Division of\nthe Public Service Department as the constituting body that runs the\npsychological assessments for its workers that include various types of tests\nthat measure attitudes, emotional stability and personality assessments.\nInarguably, the tests provide very important information that determine the\nlevel of&nbsp;mental well-being of an individual, hence, helping in collecting\ndata for screening and diagnostic purposes, and thus, profiling them to get the\nwhole picture of an individual\u2019s psychological functioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Considering that Malaysia has&nbsp;the\nlargest&nbsp;number of&nbsp;civil&nbsp;servants&nbsp;compared to its Southeast\nAsia neighbouring countries, of which 70 per cent consist of high school\ngraduates or those who have never attended colleges and universities, it seems\nthat in terms of the distribution of mental illnesses, this group constitutes\nthe largest group at risk of mental illness, compared to those with higher\neducation. This briefly explains how the profiling is all about. Another\nattempt at profiling involves understanding what key aspects of causative\nfactors that make why or how certain group of people are vulnerable to\ndeveloping mental health problems in the society. However, such information\nwill never exist, unless and until mental health screening exercise is\nconsidered to be important. In fact, based&nbsp;on what is happening nowadays\nas reported in the press, mental health problems such as suicide, rage,\ndepression, anxiety, drugs withdrawal symptoms and others, are on the rise, which\nmay end up unresolved without any signal that the problems could have been\ndetected earlier, saved or prevented. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Generally, mental health assessment tests and\ntools are psychological&nbsp;or psychiatric&nbsp;in nature, which&nbsp;aims at\nassessing or identifying the status and capabilities of an individual&#8217;s\npsychological functioning, including aspects of emotion, thought,&nbsp;neurocognitive\nfunction,&nbsp;personality and the tendency of their behaviour.&nbsp;The tests have strong clinical standards that\ncan be used not only for screening, but also in diagnosing mental disorders.&nbsp;Though more focused in hospital settings, clinics and health\ncentres, its use is of no limitation. In fact, their availability should&nbsp;be&nbsp;wider\nin the community and access to psychiatrists and&nbsp;clinical psychologists should\nbe easy.&nbsp;Hence, the existence of community mental health centres&nbsp;and\ncommunity clinics in recent years is expected&nbsp;to realise&nbsp;such a goal,\nwhich is to perform routine mental health checks and ultimately be able to detect\nand identify&nbsp;any community member who needs intervention and further\ntreatment of mental health care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Therefore, in realising such an ambition,\nthe first step toward the establishment of effective mental health profiling\nexercise is to have a pool of mental health screening and diagnostic tools and\ninstruments available, and routinely checked by qualified mental health\npersonnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u201cprofile\u201d may not be unfamiliar to many. It always refers to personality when used. Profiles carry some information about a person\u2019s life, work, character, behaviour and hobbies. In our attempt to describe somebody, we will gather as much information of the person as possible. This is profiling activity. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}