The Wellbeing Index
A unified, validated, and acceptable measure of wellbeing across health and social care systems.
What is it?
The Wellbeing Index is designed as a unified, validated, and acceptable measure of wellbeing across health and social care systems.
Its goal is to:
- Provide a single standard tool for use by health coaches, social prescribers, and community health workers, and other resident facing roles.
- Capture hidden determinants of health such as loneliness, hope, sense of purpose, and locus of control, which strongly influence health outcomes.
- Enable consistent data collection for evaluation, research, and service improvement across multiple organisations.
We often use an iceberg as an analogy for how wellbeing is currently defined.
What we see is unemployment, homelessness or suicide – the tip of the iceberg.
But really these are caused by what’s happening beneath the surface:
- Isolation
- Poverty
- loneliness
- Sense of hope & purpose
- Locus of control
- Health Literacy
Those are parts we look to explore through this Index.
How does it work?
When to administer:
Typically at the first and last session with residents, with optional mid-point checks for longitudinal tracking.
What’s the format?
A short questionnaire adapted from validated scales (e.g., UCLA Loneliness Scale, Ryff’s Psychological Wellbeing Scale).
How does it integrate with existing systems?
It can be embedded into S1 templates or digital platforms for easy recording.
We are currently using The Wellbeing Index within the OctoLink app.