Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about mental health support access, plus tips on how to craft each question for better results. You can build a tailored AI survey in seconds with Specific—it’s as easy as starting a conversation.
Best open-ended questions for patient surveys on mental health support access
Open-ended questions are fantastic when we want detailed, honest feedback. Letting patients use their own words helps us spot issues no checkbox could reveal and gives depth that numbers alone can’t capture. People are more willing than you might think: 76% of patients actually choose to add comments to their survey responses, indicating a real desire to be heard and share their stories [3]. Open-ended questions are essential for spotting unanticipated barriers—like stigma, cultural expectations, or small logistical details—and for surfacing nuanced experiences that numbers miss [4].
Here are 10 of the best open-ended survey questions to ask patients about their experience accessing mental health support:
Can you describe any challenges you’ve faced when trying to access mental health support?
What factors make it easier for you to seek mental health care?
Have you ever delayed or avoided seeking support? If so, why?
How would you improve the process of getting mental health services?
What, if anything, has encouraged you to access support in the past?
Describe your ideal experience when reaching out for mental health help.
Can you share an experience (positive or negative) related to mental health care access?
What resources or information do you wish you had known about sooner?
What barriers, if any, have stopped you from following through with treatment?
Is there anything else you want to share about accessing mental health support?
These questions invite detail and are especially valuable for uncovering “hidden” pain points when you’re designing interventions or evaluating the impact of existing support systems.
Top single-select multiple-choice questions for patient surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when we need to quantify a trend, measure frequency, or gently ease patients into the conversation. Sometimes, clicking a short answer is less intimidating and helps us gather structured insights quickly before probing deeper with follow-up questions.
Question: What is the biggest barrier to accessing mental health support for you?
Cost of services
Lack of information
Stigma or embarrassment
Difficulty finding providers
Other
Question: When did you last try to access mental health support?
Within the past month
Within the past six months
Within the past year
More than a year ago
Never tried
Question: How confident are you in finding mental health support when you need it?
Very confident
Somewhat confident
Not confident
Not sure
When to follow up with "why?" If a patient selects “not confident” or mentions “stigma,” it’s the perfect time to ask a simple “why?” This lets you get past the numbers and understand the real story—for example, a patient might say "Not confident," and your next question digs into whether it's because of past negative experiences or uncertainty about where to start.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always leave room for unexpected insights. If a patient’s barrier isn’t listed, “Other” gives them room to share it—and your follow-up can uncover a concern you hadn’t even thought to ask about. These open responses sometimes point the way to crucial improvements or emerging trends in the field.
Should you add an NPS-style question to a patient mental health support survey?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a powerful, standardized question used to gauge satisfaction and overall experience: “On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this service to others?” It translates well to patient surveys, especially for mental health support, because it captures sentiment and allows you to benchmark results. NPS works because it’s broader than strict satisfaction—in mental health, this often reveals if people feel supported and empowered after seeking care.
If you want to adopt this approach in your next survey, try our instant NPS survey builder for patients, designed specifically for mental health support access studies.
The power of follow-up questions
If you want to get the real story—not just the surface answer—you need follow-up questions. We see this again and again: an initial response barely scratches the surface, but a timely follow-up from Specific’s AI digs quickly to the “why” and delivers a whole new level of context. Read more about our automated follow-up questions for the details.
Smart follow-ups are what make conversational surveys so powerful. With Specific, the AI listens and asks the right follow-ups in real time, like a skilled interviewer would. This is key for mental health access: you’ll capture details that help you truly understand each experience.
Patient: “I had trouble getting an appointment.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share more about what made booking the appointment difficult?”
Patient: “It was too expensive.”
AI follow-up: “Was it the cost of sessions, insurance coverage, or some other expense?”
How many followups to ask? Two or three follow-ups are typically enough to clarify, dig deeper, and get all the essential information. Specific lets you set a limit, and you can always allow a patient to skip ahead if they’ve shared what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey. The whole experience feels like a natural two-way chat, encouraging patients to open up more than they would with a form.
AI survey analysis, response summaries, and theme discovery—even for huge volumes of unstructured feedback—are easy thanks to Specific’s built-in analytics tools. Find out more in our guide to analyzing survey responses with AI.
Give it a try: generate your own conversational survey, experience real-time follow-up, and see just how much richer your patient insights can be.
How to prompt ChatGPT to create great survey questions
If you want new ideas fast, ChatGPT can be a great brainstorming partner for mental health support access survey questions. Start with a focused, simple prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Patient survey about Mental Health Support Access.
The more context you provide, the better the results. Add details about your goals, the audience, or the specific barriers you want to address:
“I’m designing a survey for young adult patients who have tried to access mental health care in the past year. My goal is to understand the barriers they’ve encountered, including cost, stigma, and information gaps. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions that would help us get both quantitative and detailed qualitative feedback.”
You can then get ChatGPT to structure and refine the output:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Next, review the categories for relevance, pick the ones most important to your goals, and prompt again:
Generate 10 questions for categories "Barriers to Access" and "Experiences with Care Providers".
Mix and match these approaches in the AI survey builder or edit on the fly with our AI survey editor. The beauty is how quickly you can iterate until you have a truly patient-centric set of questions.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey mimics the way real conversations flow—each answer steers the next question, follow-ups are instant, and the interaction feels natural and personal. Unlike traditional forms, where patients click through static fields, a conversational survey (especially one powered by AI) adapts to what each person says. For issues like mental health support access, that nuance is critical.
Here’s how conversational (AI-powered) surveys stack up versus old-school manual surveys:
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Static, same for everyone | Adapts in real time to each patient’s answers |
Often low engagement rates | Feels like messaging—higher participation |
Difficult to analyze open text responses | AI summarizes, highlights themes for you |
Follow-ups are manual (or missing entirely) | Automated follow-ups get richer details |
Why use AI for patient surveys? AI survey examples make it easy to create, launch, and analyze conversational surveys that adapt to each respondent. We measure richer insights, reduce survey fatigue, and ensure patients can share on their terms—crucial for a sensitive topic like mental health support access.
Specific delivers best-in-class experiences for both survey creators and respondents. You can see the difference when you create your survey from scratch or use a template: it’s simple, engaging, and leads to better, more actionable data.
See this mental health support access survey example now
Ready to collect real insights? See an AI survey example in action and unlock deeper stories from every patient, with less effort and more actionable feedback.