Young People’s Satisfaction With the Online Mental Health Service eheadspace: Development and Implementation of a Service Satisfaction Measure

Background Online youth mental health services are an expanding approach to meeting service need and can be used as the first step in a stepped-care approach. However, limited evidence exists regarding satisfaction with online services, and there is no standardized service satisfaction measure. Objective This study implemented an online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire within eheadspace, an online youth mental health service. The aims were to test the questionnaire’s psychometric properties and identify current levels of satisfaction among service users, as well as to identify client and service contact characteristics that affect satisfaction. Methods Data were collected from 2280 eheadspace clients via an online questionnaire advertised and accessed through the eheadspace service platform between September 2016 and February 2018. Client and service contact characteristics, potential outcomes, and session and service feedback data were collected. Results The service satisfaction questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency for the overall satisfaction scale (alpha=.95) and its three subscales: session satisfaction, potential outcomes, and service satisfaction. A three-factor model was the best fit to the data, although including a higher order unidimensional construct of overall satisfaction was also a reasonable fit. Overall, young people were very satisfied with eheadspace (mean 3.60, SD 0.83). Service characteristics, but not client characteristics, were significantly associated with satisfaction. Young people were more satisfied with eheadspace when they had greater engagement as evident through receiving esupport rather than briefer service provision, having a longer session and greater interaction with the clinician, and not previously attending a face-to-face headspace center. Conclusions The online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire developed for and implemented in eheadspace showed good psychometric properties. The measure is brief, has good internal consistency, and has a clear factor structure. The measure could be adapted for use in other online youth mental health services. The young people using eheadspace and completing the feedback survey were highly satisfied. Greater engagement with the online service was shown to be associated with greater satisfaction. No specific client demographic groups were shown to be more or less satisfied.

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Young People’s Satisfaction With the Online Mental Health Service eheadspace: Development and Implementation of a Service Satisfaction Measure (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.12169 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Debra Rickwood ◽

Alison Wallace ◽

Vanessa Kennedy ◽

Shaunagh O’Sullivan ◽

Nic Telford ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Young People ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Potential Outcomes ◽

Service Satisfaction ◽

Satisfaction Questionnaire ◽

Service Contact

BACKGROUND Online youth mental health services are an expanding approach to meeting service need and can be used as the first step in a stepped-care approach. However, limited evidence exists regarding satisfaction with online services, and there is no standardized service satisfaction measure. OBJECTIVE This study implemented an online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire within eheadspace, an online youth mental health service. The aims were to test the questionnaire’s psychometric properties and identify current levels of satisfaction among service users, as well as to identify client and service contact characteristics that affect satisfaction. METHODS Data were collected from 2280 eheadspace clients via an online questionnaire advertised and accessed through the eheadspace service platform between September 2016 and February 2018. Client and service contact characteristics, potential outcomes, and session and service feedback data were collected. RESULTS The service satisfaction questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency for the overall satisfaction scale (alpha=.95) and its three subscales: session satisfaction, potential outcomes, and service satisfaction. A three-factor model was the best fit to the data, although including a higher order unidimensional construct of overall satisfaction was also a reasonable fit. Overall, young people were very satisfied with eheadspace (mean 3.60, SD 0.83). Service characteristics, but not client characteristics, were significantly associated with satisfaction. Young people were more satisfied with eheadspace when they had greater engagement as evident through receiving esupport rather than briefer service provision, having a longer session and greater interaction with the clinician, and not previously attending a face-to-face headspace center. CONCLUSIONS The online youth mental health service satisfaction questionnaire developed for and implemented in eheadspace showed good psychometric properties. The measure is brief, has good internal consistency, and has a clear factor structure. The measure could be adapted for use in other online youth mental health services. The young people using eheadspace and completing the feedback survey were highly satisfied. Greater engagement with the online service was shown to be associated with greater satisfaction. No specific client demographic groups were shown to be more or less satisfied.

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The effect of a youth mental health service model on access to secondary mental healthcare for young people aged 14–25 years

BJPsych Bulletin ◽

10.1192/bjb.2018.70 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 27-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sarah Maxwell ◽

Obianuju Ugochukwu ◽

Tim Clarke ◽

Brioney Gee ◽

Emmet Clarke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Young People ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Mental Healthcare ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Service Model ◽

Youth Service

Aims and methodThe Norfolk Youth Service was created in 2012 in response to calls to redesign mental health services to better meet the needs of young people. The new service model transcends traditional boundaries by creating a single, ‘youth friendly’ service for young people aged 14–25 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the transition to this new model on patterns of referral, acceptance and service use. We analysed routinely collected data on young people aged 14–25 years referred for secondary mental healthcare in Norfolk before and after implementation of the youth mental health service. The number of referrals, their age and gender, proportion of referrals accepted and average number of service contacts per referral by age pre- and post-implementation were compared.ResultsReferrals increased by 68% following implementation of the new service model, but the proportion of referrals accepted fell by 27 percentage points. Before implementation of the youth service, there was a clear discrepancy between the peak age of referral and the age of those seen by services. Following implementation, service contacts were more equitable across ages, with no marked discontinuity at age 18 years.Clinical implicationsOur findings suggest that the transformation of services may have succeeded in reducing the ‘cliff edge’ in access to mental health services at the transition to adulthood. However, the sharp rise in referrals and reduction in the proportion of referrals accepted highlights the importance of considering possible unintended consequences of new service models.Declaration of interestsNone.

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headspace Youth Mental Health Service Satisfaction Scale

PsycTESTS Dataset ◽

10.1037/t74725-000 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Magenta Simmons ◽

Alexandra G. Parker ◽

Sarah E. Hetrick ◽

Nic Telford ◽

Alan Bailey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Service Satisfaction ◽

Satisfaction Scale

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Systematic review of youth mental health service integration research

Australian Journal of Primary Health ◽

10.1071/py15114 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 304 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Irina Kinchin ◽

Komla Tsey ◽

Marion Heyeres ◽

Yvonne Cadet-James

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Methodological Quality ◽

Service Integration ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Inclusion Criteria

Quality mental health care is based on the integration of care across organisations and disciplines. The aims of this study were, first, to assess the extent, characteristics and reported outcomes of publications concerned with youth mental health service integration in Australia and internationally; and second, to investigate the study design quality of evaluative interventions and determine whether the studies report on the cost-effectiveness of the integration in order to inform the reform of youth mental health services by Queensland Health. A systematic search of the peer-reviewed literature and a narrative synthesis were undertaken of English language publications from 21 electronic databases. Inclusion criteria were: published 1998–2014 (inclusive); peer-reviewed research; focused on mental health services integration; reported data for youth aged 12–25 years. The methodological quality of evaluative interventions was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies developed by the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP). Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria: one (4%) was classified as a measurement research, 13 (52%) as descriptive, and 11 (44%) as interventions including five (45%) evaluative interventions. Four out of the five evaluative interventions reported positive effects of youth mental health service integration. Particular problems included ambiguity of definitions, absence of economic or cost analyses and insufficient consumer involvement. The methodological quality of the interventions was variable with, on average, a moderate level of selection bias and study design. Despite a slight increase in the number of studies in the last couple of years, there are important gaps in the evidence base for youth mental health service integration processes. The relatively small number of evaluative studies and lack of economic evaluations point to the need for additional research in this important area.

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Attendance at the accident and emergency department in the year before suicide: Retrospective study

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.183.1.28 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 183 (1) ◽

pp. 28-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 132

Author(s):

Isaura Gairin ◽

Allan House ◽

David Owens

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Emergency Department ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Emergency Departments ◽

Accident And Emergency ◽

Self Harm ◽

Accident And Emergency Department ◽

Service Contact

BackgroundThe National Confidential Inquiry into suicides in England and Wales found that a quarter of suicides are preceded by mental health service contact in the year before death. However, visits to accident and emergency departments due to self-harm may not lead to a record of mental health service contact.AimsTo determine the proportion of suicides preceded by accident and emergency attendance in the previous year.MethodWe obtained the list of probable suicides in Leeds for a 38-month period, and examined the records from thecity's accident and emergency departments for a year before each death.ResultsEighty-five (39%) of the 219 people who later died by suicide had attended an accident and emergency department in the year before death, 15% because of non-fatal self-harm. Final visits dueto self-harm were often shortly before suicide (median 38 days), but the National Confidential Inquiry recorded about a fifth of them as‘not in contact’ with local mental health services.ConclusionsAlthough many suicides are preceded by recent attendance at accident and emergency departments due to non-fatal self-harm, local mental health service records may show no recent contact. Suicide prevention might be enhanced were accident and emergency departments and mental health services to work together more closely.

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Using Digital Technologies to Facilitate Care Coordination Between Youth Mental Health Services: A Guide for Implementation

Frontiers in Health Services ◽

10.3389/frhs.2021.745456 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

Frank Iorfino ◽

Sarah E. Piper ◽

Ante Prodan ◽

Haley M. LaMonica ◽

Tracey A. Davenport ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Young People ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Dynamic Simulation ◽

Care Coordination ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Simulation Modelling ◽

Dynamic Simulation Modelling

Enhanced care coordination is essential to improving access to and navigation between youth mental health services. By facilitating better communication and coordination within and between youth mental health services, the goal is to guide young people quickly to the level of care they need and reduce instances of those receiving inappropriate care (too much or too little), or no care at all. Yet, it is often unclear how this goal can be achieved in a scalable way in local regions. We recommend using technology-enabled care coordination to facilitate streamlined transitions for young people across primary, secondary, more specialised or hospital-based care. First, we describe how technology-enabled care coordination could be achieved through two fundamental shifts in current service provisions; a model of care which puts the person at the centre of their care; and a technology infrastructure that facilitates this model. Second, we detail how dynamic simulation modelling can be used to rapidly test the operational features of implementation and the likely impacts of technology-enabled care coordination in a local service environment. Combined with traditional implementation research, dynamic simulation modelling can facilitate the transformation of real-world services. This work demonstrates the benefits of creating a smart health service infrastructure with embedded dynamic simulation modelling to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes through participatory and data driven health service planning.

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Outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and young people in out-of-home care presenting at a specialist child and youth mental health service

International Journal of Integrated Care ◽

10.5334/ijic.s1029 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (s1) ◽

pp. 29

Author(s):

Kathryn Eadie ◽

Mandy Douch

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Young People ◽

Health Service ◽

Home Care ◽

Youth Mental Health ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Out Of Home Care ◽

Indigenous Children

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Child and adolescent mental health services: longitudinal data sheds light on current policy for psychological interventions in the community

Journal of Public Mental Health ◽

10.1108/jpmh-03-2017-0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 96-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sharon A.S. Neufeld ◽

Peter B. Jones ◽

Ian M. Goodyer

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Service ◽

Health Services ◽

Adolescent Mental Health ◽

Content Type ◽

School Based ◽

Adolescent Mental Health Service ◽

Service Contact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to expand upon policy implications of a recent study assessing adolescent mental health service contact and subsequent depression. Design/methodology/approach Review of related evidence from academic and grey literature. Findings Studies assessing the role of mental health services in reducing mental disorder during adolescence are sparse, and even prevalence figures for adolescent mental disorders are out-of-date. Adolescent mental health service contact rates are shown to fall concurrent with budgetary decreases. School-based counselling is highlighted as an important source of help that may be at risk of being cut. Increased training of General Practitioners and school counsellors is needed to improve efficiency in specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Practical implications Longitudinal studies of young people’s mental health should include mental health service usage and its relationship with subsequent mental health outcomes. Social implications Funding cuts to CAMHS must be avoided, school-based counselling must be protected, and service referrers should be better trained. Originality/value This paper highlights the need for increased CAMHS data, sustained funding, and improved training for this vital service.

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