Need for developing unified workplace mental health screening tool for the Indian population: Commenting on the Tool to assess and classify work (TAWS-16)

Abstract

Workplace mental health has gained importance in the recent days. However, its assessment is challenging considering the complexity involved in it. The earliest and highly cited Indian research on the workplace mental health listed 12 workplace factors viz. role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, unreasonable (group & political) pressure, individual responsibility, under participation, powerlessness, poor peer relations, intrinsic impoverishment, low status, strenuous working condition and unprofitability. However, in view of the deficiency, the workplace factors have been rephrased by subsequent investigators. Numerous investigators have attempted to develop or partially use the pre-existing tool for assessing the workplace stress. These primary observations are often heterogeneous, difficult to interpret, and contribute to the challenges during drafting guidelines / policies. Therefore, a tool validated for larger population perhaps after amalgamation of the existing validated tools is recommended