Implementing Technology in Mental Health Practice

Introduction

People wish to live a meaningful life even while suffering from mental health problems. Adam Clifford, a clinical nurse specialist at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, wrote Using Video Technology to Manage Mental Health for Learning Disability Practice, he states that forty percent of the population has additional mental health problems. Majority of this forty percent is embarrassed or uncomfortable in accessing mental health care (2014). In A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance Face-to-Face Mental Health Services from Journal Of Child & Family Studies written by Simone Orlowski who is affiliated with Flinders Human Behavior & Health Research Unit at Flinders University, explains that mental health treatment that is aimed towards anxiety and depression is based on four main functions; information provision, screening, assessment, and monitoring (Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Implementing technology in health care services can offer advantages and disadvantages for people with mental health issues. Technology will positively impact mental health care services, by making it more accessible for people with limited financial flexibility and transportation, young adults with mental illnesses will feel more comfortable seeking help or advice, and it will give a better and more accurate experience for both the patient and professional.

Limited financial flexibility and availability of transport:

Mental health care support is a vital aid which is not accessible
to some people because of financial costs and transportation needs. The
promise and the reality: a mental health workforce perspective on technology-enhanced
youth mental health service delivery, an article written by Simone Orlowski
from BMC Health Services Research, states thattechnology will make mental
health services more accessible for young adults who have limited financial
flexibility or do not have means of transport (2016). The combination of
limited financial and transportation aid gives restricted opportunities for
mental health care services not located at home. Recent developments from using
online resources and mobile technologies to support mental health care has shown
improvement for people with restricted financial and transportation support. Turvey,
C. L, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Carver College of Medicine wrote Recent
developments in the use of online resources and mobile technologies to support
mental health care for the International Review Of Psychiatry, he suggests
house based health-related mobile applications and web-based electronic mental
health problems as solutions for people who have limited transportation and
financials (Roberts, L. J. 2015).

Young adults feel uncomfortable seeking help or advice:

20% of young Australians between the ages of fifteen to nineteen
suffer from the symptoms of mental illness and 60% of those teens are
uncomfortable seeking help or advice for their mental illness (Orlowski. S,
2016). A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance
Face-to-Face Mental Health Services written by Sharon Lawn, the director of
the Flinders Human Behaviour and Health Research Unit at Flinders University, expresses
that the increase in percentage of teens who feel uncomfortable asking for help
decreases engagement for youth towards mental health services, technology can
increase engagement by using similar methods used in teen’s day to day life (Journal
Of Child & Family Studies. Orlowski, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A.,
Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Young adults constantly
use their cellphones and always have them by their side, Turvey from The
International Review of Psychiatry states the proposition given for mobile apps
in mental health is based on the ideal that they will always be with the
patient. If the mobile device with the app is with them all the time it can
help promote their clinical goals for example a person with a chronic psychotic
disorder would get a notification at medication time. Mild to moderate
depression and anxiety can be treated through another method of self-guided or
professional facilitated therapies that are delivered via internet. Lastly, the
part that would appeal most to young adults is that patients can use these
applications and programs in private with no interactions with professionals
(Turvey, C. L., Roberts, L. J. 2015).

Better experience for patient and the professional

Implementing technology can improve the experience for both the
patient and professional. Technology can give a more accurate treatment without
completely replacing face to face interactions. It can be implemented through
predictive analytics, increased consumer input, self-management, and inclusive
stakeholder communication, these reasons for implementing technology into
mental health services are under researched (Orlowski, S., Lawn, S., Antezana,
G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Extra
sensory perception an article from Scientific American written by Gershon
Dublon, a Ph.D. student at the M.I.T. media lab and Joseph A. Paradiso, an
associate professor of media arts and sciences at the Media Lab from the
stimulus packet helps piece together how technology will help mental health
care services. Different sensors described by Dublon and Paradiso will change
how comfortable patients feel in an environment or how professionals can give
the patient a better experience. Temperature sensors can determine the
temperature and relative humidity in the room as measure by dense sensor
network. Sound sensors will help a patient recognize the movement and sound in
a room, so it can be adjusted to their preference. Overall, the temperature and
sound sensors will give the professional and patient better control of the
environment. The data collected by these sensors can be used as references in
the future to experience data from the past in multiple perspectives. Guarav
Singh, head of the department of psychiatry at the Medical College Hospital and
Research Center in Uttar Pradesh, India, wrote Use of Mobile Phone
Technology to Improve follow-up at a Community Mental Health Clinic: A
Randomized Control Trial published by Indian Journal of Psychological
Medicine, in this article he emits the fact that missed appointments are common
in outpatient care for mental health-care services. Even with the need of
further treatment 16-60% will not follow up with their appointments. The
suggested method for improving follow up in outpatient care is through short
message service (SMS) and voice calls via telephone.

Counter-argument

The mental health workforce fears that technology will have a
negative effect on their services believes that it will disclose privacy and
confidentiality from issues within the technology programs (Orlowski, S., Lawn,
S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B.
2016). Technology is believed to increase the workload for professionals and
uphold disengagement from face-to-face therapy. Relating to the idea of
face-to-face therapy, in The Historian as Participant from The Historian
and the World of the Twentieth Century written by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was an
American historian, social critic, and public intellectual, eyewitness history
is considered valuable for historians. In this situation eyewitness history and
face-to-face therapy hold a connection in the importance of how eyewitnesses
can more accurately identify critical factors in the process of these events.
Eyewitness history holds a different perspective to history, it shows the way
people think and feel. When implementing technology into mental health care
services and decreasing the amount of face-to-face contact, the input of
emotions given by the professional is eliminated.

Solution

The implementation of technology can be approached from different
angles such as implementation programs for mental health care services. Simone
Orlowski states that most technology solutions include mental health self-help
programs which are more independent for the participant. Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy interventions (iCBT’s) which treats mild to moderate mental health
problems such as depression and anxiety or mobile apps for self-management and
self-treatment which will help limit interactions with health professionals to
little or none. People with more severe cases of mental problems will struggle
with self-help programs and will need to consult with professionals. Telepscychiatry
which is meant for more severe cases that would require input from professionals
via video conferences. Telepscychiatry can allow patients with limited financial
abilities and limited technology availability to obtain therapy affordable to
them (Lawn, S., Matthews, B., Venning, A., Wyld, K., Jones, G., & …
Bidargaddi, N. 2016). People in programs like Telepscychiatry are limited to
the variety of mental health professionals available for face-to-face therapy. Mobile
apps are one of the aforementioned solutions for mental health care services.
The functions supported by mobile apps, online health programs, or personal
health records overlap in information and abilities. The three technological
programs give standard mental health scales or electronic messages reminders to
promote health behavior. Mobile apps are the preferred program which offer
functions such as targeted educational content, structured mental health
assessments, symptom or behavior logs, and context sensing or unobtrusive
monitoring (Turvey, C. L., & Roberts, L. J. 2015).

Conclusion

Technology will improve mental health care services for young
adults who feel uncomfortable seeking help, people with constrained financial
and transporting utilities, and it will improve the course of treatment for
both patient and professional.The mental health workforce is opposed to
the implementation of technology because complications in patient
confidentiality and privacy. Technology self-help programs via internet and
mobile apps will be available for people suffering from depression, anxiety, and
other conditions. Telepscychiatry will be available for people who cannot
benefit from self-help programs. The limitations to these solutions are the
level the patients conditions and the decreased expertise of professionals that
only work with face-to-face patients. The implementation of these programs with
their limitations will improve mental health care services, but not completely
rewire how it works.

References

Clifford,
A. (2014). Using video technology to manage mental health. Learning Disability Practice, 17(7), 24-28.

Dublon,
G., & Paradiso, J. A. (2014, July). Extra sensory perception. Scientific American, 38-41.

Orlowski,
S., Lawn, S., Matthews, B., Venning, A., Wyld, K., Jones, G., & …
Bidargaddi, N.  (2016). The promise and the reality: a mental health workforce
perspective on technology-enhanced youth mental health service delivery. BMC
Health Services Research, 161-12. doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1790-y

Orlowski,
S., Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., &
Matthews, B. (2016). A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance
Face-to-Face Mental Health Services. Journal Of Child & Family Studies,
25(10), 3066-3075. doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0472-z

Schlesinger,
A., Jr. (1971). The historian as participant. In J. Grenville (Author), The historian and the world of the twentieth century (Spring ed., Vol. 100, pp. 339-358).

Singh,
G., Manjunatha, N., Rao, S., Shashidhara, H. N., Moirangthem, S., Madegowda,
R.  K., & … Varghese, M. (2017). Use of Mobile Phone Technology to Improve
follow-up at a Community Mental Health Clinic: A Randomized Control Trial.
Indian Journal Of Psychological Medicine, 39(3), 276-280.
doi:10.4103/0253-7176.207325

Turvey,
C. L., & Roberts, L. J. (2015). Recent developments in the use of online
resources and mobile technologies to support mental health care. International
Review of Psychiatry, 27(6), 547-557. doi:10.3109/09540261.2015.1087975