scholarly journals Unlocking the potential for digital mental health technologies in the UK: a Delphi exercise

BJPsych Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Murphy ◽  
Lucy Thorpe ◽  
Harriet Trefusis ◽  
Antonis Kousoulis

Background Digitally enabled services can contribute to the support, treatment and prevention of mental health difficulties; however, questions remain regarding how we can most usefully harness such technology in primary and secondary mental healthcare settings. Aims To identify barriers and facilitators to enable the potential of digital mental health in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Method A three-round Delphi exercise was carried out online with 16 participants from across the four nations of the UK representing the following stakeholder groups: service providers, health professionals, policymakers, lived experience, small and medium enterprises and academics. Qualitative data were collected in the first round (80 fragments) that were then coded to produce a 26-item round-two questionnaire for participant rating. Participants were given the opportunity to reconsider their scores in light of the group responses in round three. Results Eight statements under the following five themes reached consensus with median scores between 8 and 10 (i.e. important/very important): co-production; the human element; data security; funding; and regulation. Conclusions The Delphi process allowed consensus to be achieved regarding the factors that experts consider important for harnessing technology in primary and secondary mental healthcare. Knowledge of these factors can help users and providers of mental health services negotiate how best to move forward with digitally enabled systems of care.

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 294-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Shaiyan Rahman ◽  
Nadya Wolferstan

SummaryThe UK courts have recently considered the management of suicidal patients in the cases of Savage and Rabone. As a result of these judgments, the case law has extended significantly the responsibilities of mental healthcare providers. In this article we discuss the repercussions of these landmark decisions which are likely to have significant consequences for mental health service providers in the UK.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Dickens ◽  
Judy Weleminsky ◽  
Yetunde Onifade ◽  
Philip Sugarman

Aims and methodMental Health Recovery Star is a multifaceted 10-item outcomes measure and key-working tool that has been widely adopted by service providers in the UK. We aimed to explore its factorial validity, internal consistency and responsiveness. Recovery Star readings were conducted twice with 203 working-age adults with moderate to severe mental health problems attending a range of mental health services, and a third time with 113 of these individuals.ResultsMental Health Recovery Star had high internal consistency and appeared to measure an underlying recovery-oriented construct. Results supported a valid two-factor structure which explained 48% of variance in Recovery Star ratings data. Two Recovery Star items (‘relationships’ and ‘addictive behaviour’) did not load onto either factor. There was good statistically significant item responsiveness, and no obvious item redundancy. Data for a small number of variables were not normally distributed and the implications of this are discussed.Clinical implicationsRecovery Star has been received enthusiastically by both mental health service providers and service users. This study provides further evidence for its adoption in recovery-focused mental health services and indicates that items relating to addictive behaviour, responsibilities and work could be further developed in future.


1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mechanic

People with serious and persistent mental illness require a range of community services typically provided by different specialized agencies. At the clinical level, assertive team case management is the strategy commonly used to achieve integration of services across specialized sectors. The USA also has used various financial and organizational approaches to reduce fragmentation and increase effectiveness, including development of stronger public mental health authorities, use of financial incentives to change professional and institutional behavior, requirements to allocate savings from hospital closures to community systems of care, and introduction of mental health managed care on a broad scale. These approaches have potential but also significant problems and there is often a large gap between theory and implementation. These US developments are discussed with attention to the implications for mental health services in the UK.


2020 ◽  
pp. 573-580
Author(s):  
Philippe Delespaul ◽  
Catherine van Zelst

This chapter is about a redesign of mental healthcare, as it evolves in a changing world. It focuses on digital transformations and their impact on social relationships, networks, and communities. It intends to demonstrate better responses to the needs of service users in society. It first defines terminologies to access the changing world and focus on how to understand health, recovery, and well-being in people with lived experience of psychosis. These central elements can be accessed or maintained using eHealth, including mHealth, virtual reality, and eCommunities. It also discuss strengths, challenges, and pitfalls in developing and applying innovative interventions in the context of daily life. It reviews these trends and how these relate to the therapeutic relationship in general, and the mental health practitioner’s role in particular.


Author(s):  
Xuezheng Qin ◽  
Chee-Ruey Hsieh

A common challenge faced by the healthcare systems in many low- and middle-income countries is the substantial unmet mental healthcare needs, or the large gap between the need for and the provision of mental healthcare treatment. This paper investigates the potential causes of this treatment gap from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesize that people with mental illness face 4 major hurdles in obtaining appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to mental health, the high time costs due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We use China as a study setting to show country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the 4 barriers to access, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Catherine Wiseman-Hakes ◽  
Angela Colantonio ◽  
Hyun Ryu ◽  
Danielle Toccalino ◽  
Robert Balogh ◽  
...  

We present the findings from a one-day, multidisciplinary meeting to gather feedback for an integrated knowledge translation research project addressing the integration of health services and supports for individuals with traumatic brain injury, mental health, and/or addictions; especially those who experience homelessness/vulnerably housed, intersect with the criminal justice system, and are survivors of intimate partner violence. This meeting brought together persons with lived experience, service providers, decision makers, and researchers, who provided feedback that further refined the research methodology and highlighted existing gaps. This event was successful in inviting collaboration, knowledge exchange and dissemination, and advancing an important knowledge-to-action cycle for this research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Andrew Cuddy

This study examined the participation of people with lived experience of mental health problems in political, social, and client advocacy. An online survey was conducted of 27 advocacy organizations across Canada. People with lived experience exhibited the highest level of participation in program delivery, with rates of participation varying by advocacy activity and sub-group. Stigma around mental health and severity of illness were rated as the strongest barriers limiting participation. The support of service providers and peer role models were considered effective strategies for increasing participation. Several self-benefits were reported as highly prevalent among mental health advocates.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 241-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Davies ◽  
Claire Dimond

SummaryThe UK Mental Health Act 1983 does not apply in prison. The legal framework for the care and treatment of people with mental illness in prison is provided by the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We raise dilemmas about its use. We highlight how assessing best interests and defining harm involves making challenging judgements. How best interests and harm are interpreted has a potentially significant impact on clinical practice within a prison context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Brown ◽  
Paula Reavey

Abstract In this paper, we consider changes to memorial practices for mental health service users during the asylum period of the mid-nineteenth up to the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. The closing of large asylums in the UK has been largely welcomed by professionals and service-users alike, but their closure has led to a decrease in continuous and consistent care for those with enduring mental health challenges. Temporary and time-limited mental health services, largely dedicated to crisis management and risk reduction have failed to enable memory practices outside the therapy room. This is an unusual case of privatised memories being favoured over collective memorial activity. We argue that the collectivisation of service user memories, especially in institutions containing large numbers of long-stay patients, would benefit both staff and patients. The benefit would be in the development of awareness of how service users make sense of their past in relation to their present stay in hospital, how they might connect with others in similar positions and how they may connect with the world and others upon future release. This seems to us central to a project of recovery and yet is rarely practised in any mental health institution in the UK, despite being central to other forms of care provision, such as elderly and children's care services. We offer some suggestions on how collective models of memory in mental health might assist in this project of recovery and create greater visibility between past, present and future imaginings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Nicole Fraser

An increase of ongoing armed conflicts has resulted in substantial numbers of refugees around the world. The traumatic experiences refugees face can be detrimental to their mental health, further compounded by resettlement stressors upon arrival in Canada. This qualitative study incorporates an intersectional social determinants of health framework in order to understand the changes in mental health of refugees at different stages of a lifelong (re)settlement process. The findings of this study are informed by interviews with five service providers. Results indicated a number of salient post-migration factors that influence mental health in both the short and over the longer term for refugees and further elucidated the effects of a mutually-reinforcing relationship between resettlement stressors and trauma in mental health changes. Implications of the study findings reveal a critical need for a more psychosocial approach to be taken regarding refugee mental healthcare in future research as well as psychological interventions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document