scholarly journals Digital Mental Health: The Answer to the Global Mental Health Crisis? (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany N Rudd ◽  
Rinad S Beidas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Health Prevention ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Prevention And Intervention ◽  
Mental Health Interventions

UNSTRUCTURED Digital mental health interventions are often touted as the solution to the global mental health crisis. However, moving mental health care from the hands of professionals and into digital apps may further isolate individuals who need human connection the most. In this commentary, we argue that people, our society’s greatest resource, are as ubiquitous as technology. Thus, we argue that research focused on using technology to support all people in delivering mental health prevention and intervention deserves greater attention in the coming decade.

scholarly journals Digital Mental Health: The Answer to the Global Mental Health Crisis?

10.2196/18472 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. e18472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany N Rudd ◽  
Rinad S Beidas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Health Prevention ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Prevention And Intervention ◽  
Mental Health Interventions

Digital mental health interventions are often touted as the solution to the global mental health crisis. However, moving mental health care from the hands of professionals and into digital apps may further isolate individuals who need human connection the most. In this commentary, we argue that people, our society’s greatest resource, are as ubiquitous as technology. Thus, we argue that research focused on using technology to support all people in delivering mental health prevention and intervention deserves greater attention in the coming decade.

Innovation Through Virtualization: Crisis Mental Health Care during Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Hensel ◽  
James M. Bolton ◽  
Danielle Carignan Svenne ◽  
Lori Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Transmission Risk ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Crisis Care

The covid-19 pandemic created major challenges for mental health crisis care. Our crisis centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba rapidly virtualized the full spectrum of services offered with remarkable uptake, resulting in avoided hospitalizations and reduced transmission risk for covid-19. We must determine how to best adopt these approaches into post-pandemic crisis care.

scholarly journals Designing Mobile Applications to Support Mental Health Interventions

2008 ◽  
pp. 635-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Matthews ◽  
Gavin Doherty ◽  
David Coyle ◽  
John Sharry
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
End User ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Technological Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Interventions

The advent of mobile technology has brought computing to a wide range of new contexts, some of which are highly sensitive and place new constraints on the designer. In this chapter we discuss issues related to the design and evaluation of mobile software for sensitive situations, where access to the end user is extremely restricted. We focus on the specific example of technological interventions that support adolescents in mental health care settings. We examine the practical and ethical constraints placed on access to end users and contexts of use, and how this may affect approaches to design and evaluation. General design recommendations for this area are described. We consider approaches to iterative design with mental health care professionals, and how research on technological and therapeutic aspects may proceed in tandem. We identify methods that can be used when conducting evaluation in these limited situations and describe a methodology for maximising the value of such evaluation. By way of illustration, we present the design and evaluation of a mobile phone-based “mood diary” application designed for use in clinical situations by adolescents undergoing mental health interventions.

scholarly journals Mental health crisis and spatial accessibility to mental health services in the city of Toronto: A geographic study

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-213
Author(s):  
Lu Wang ◽  
Joseph Ariwi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Spatial Accessibility ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The City ◽  
Specialized Mental Health

Abstract: Mental illness includes a wide range of disorders that affect mood, thinking, behaviour and overall wellbeing. One in five Canadians has mental health care needs, many of which are unmet. Within the City of Toronto, the provision of specialized mental health care is delivered by over 100 public and private community service organisations and over 700 physicians with a psychiatric specialization - each providing community-based general or specialised care to residents in need. Research has shown that travel distance is an enabling factor of health service utilisation, thus equitable spatial access to services remains a key priority. Using spatial quantitative methods, this study examines potential spatial accessibility to both general and specialized mental health services within the City of Toronto, and levels of statistical association between access to care and prevalence of mental health crisis events. The main datasets analyzed including geo-referenced Census data and occurrence data on mental health crisis (represented by apprehensions under the Mental Health Act undertaken by the Toronto Police Service). The enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method is used to model spatial accessibility to mental health services based four modes of transportation: driving, walking, cycling and public transit. Areas that are underserved by mental health specialists and mental health community services are identified and shown to have different socioeconomic characteristics. The study reveals spatially explicit patterns of access to various mental health services in Toronto, providing detailed data to inform the planning of and policy on mental health care delivery concerning severe mental health crisis.

Mental health interventions in an Italian prison: the Parma integrated approach

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Pelizza ◽  
Ursula Zambelli ◽  
Enrico Rossi ◽  
Germana Verdoliva ◽  
Davide Maestri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Intervention ◽  
Intervention Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Integrated Mental Health

Purpose Mental health interventions for Italian prisoners with mental disorders remain a problematic issue, despite radical changes in general psychiatric care and a 2008 major government reform transferring mental health care in prison to the National Health Service. The aim of this study is to describe the mental health intervention model implemented since January 2020 for prisoners allocated in the Parma Penitentiary Institutes (PPI). This approach is specifically based on specialized, “person-centered” and “person-tailored” therapeutic-rehabilitation plans in line with psychiatric treatments usually provided in community mental health-care centers of the Parma Department of Mental Health. Design/methodology/approach All the processes and procedures included in the PPI intervention model were first carefully illustrated, paying special attention to the service for newly admitted prisoners and each typology of specialized therapeutic-rehabilitation treatment potentially provided. Additionally, a preliminary descriptive process analysis of the first six months of clinical activity was also performed. Findings Since January 2020, 178 individuals entered the PPI service for newly admitted prisoners. In total, 83 (46.7%) of them were engaged in the services of the PPI mental health-care team (35 with pathological addiction and 48 with mental disorders): 56 prisoners were offered an integrated mental health intervention and 27 exclusively an individual psychological or psychiatric treatment. Originality/value The results support the potential applicability of an integrated mental health intervention in prison, planning a person-tailored rehabilitation in close collaboration with the prisoners, their families and the local mental health/social services.

scholarly journals Challenges to peer support in low- and middle-income countries during COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mpango ◽  
Jasmine Kalha ◽  
Donat Shamba ◽  
Mary Ramesh ◽  
Fileuka Ngakongwa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Low Resource Settings ◽  
Mental Health Conditions ◽  
Middle Income Countries

Abstract Background A recent editorial urged those working in global mental health to “change the conversation” on coronavirus disease (Covid-19) by putting more focus on the needs of people with severe mental health conditions. UPSIDES (Using Peer Support In Developing Empowering mental health Services) is a six-country consortium carrying out implementation research on peer support for people with severe mental health conditions in high- (Germany, Israel), lower middle- (India) and low-income (Tanzania, Uganda) settings. This commentary briefly outlines some of the key challenges faced by UPSIDES sites in low- and middle-income countries as a result of Covid-19, sharing early lessons that may also apply to other services seeking to address the needs of people with severe mental health conditions in similar contexts. Challenges and lessons learned The key take-away from experiences in India, Tanzania and Uganda is that inequalities in terms of access to mobile technologies, as well as to secure employment and benefits, put peer support workers in particularly vulnerable situations precisely when they and their peers are also at their most isolated. Establishing more resilient peer support services requires attention to the already precarious situation of people with severe mental health conditions in low-resource settings, even before a crisis like Covid-19 occurs. While it is essential to maintain contact with peer support workers and peers to whatever extent is possible remotely, alternatives to face-to-face delivery of psychosocial interventions are not always straightforward to implement and can make it more difficult to observe individuals’ reactions, talk about emotional issues and offer appropriate support. Conclusions In environments where mental health care was already heavily medicalized and mostly limited to medications issued by psychiatric institutions, Covid-19 threatens burgeoning efforts to pursue a more holistic and person-centered model of care for people with severe mental health conditions. As countries emerge from lockdown, those working in global mental health will need to redouble their efforts not only to make up for lost time and help individuals cope with the added stressors of Covid-19 in their communities, but also to regain lost ground in mental health care reform and in broader conversations about mental health in low-resource settings.

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