Technology In Healthcare: Benefits And Concerns For EMental Health

The Advantages of eMental Health Services

The term e-mental health refers to mental health services and information delivered or enhanced through the internet and related technologies. This is an area of health service innovation and development in which Australia has taken a leading role internationally. Developments in e-mental health clearly have the potential to extend the reach of service delivery to people in rural and remote areas and also to make a range of interventions such as CBT-based modalities available online. It might be said that e-mental health promises to ‘democratize’ therapy. At the same time e-mental health is developing rapidly and this raises a range of questions including, how safe and effective are interventions provided online? Are there ethical implications associated with e-mental health? In what ways might e-mental health undermine traditional values and practices surrounding human caring?

Technology can be utilized in healthcare in order to prevent, detect, screen or to treat diseases. eMental Health are mental health services and information that is shared or improved using internet and related technologies like apps for phones, which can ensure the providence of care regardless of the proximity of the patient to the care provider. In Canada, 80% of the population has accessibility to internet; however eMental Health is not used very widely (Poushter, 2016).  E Mental health provides many advantages such as shortening wait time, reaching across time zones, improves access to healthcare in remote and rural areas, ensuring cost effective healthcare delivery, and tailors service according to the language, cultural as well as specific or habitual preferences of individuals (Donker et al., 2015; Abas et al., 2016; Lal & Adair, 2014).

Hallgren et al. (2017) pointed out that digital technologies can improve clinical decision making in the treatment of depression and also help in measurement based care, integrated care and personalized medicines. The clinical decision making can be supported by technology by 1. Developing tools that can incorporate data on depressive symptoms into electronic health record systems. 2. Improving measurements of the fidelity of treatment. 3. Informing the decision making using data from biosensors and smart phones. 4. Developing tools that help in the communication and care coordination between the care provider and patient. 5. Ensuring personalized treatment for depression through the integration of electronic health records. These aspects show that technology can significantly improve the efficacy of mental health treatments. These tools can also ensure an efficient, effective and usable frontline treatment for patients, and can be utilized by the nurses to ensure better care for patients (Aboujaoude & Starcevic, 2015; Torous & Roux, 2017; Hollis et al., 2015).

Improving Clinical Decision Making through Technology

Jorm et al. (2013) suggested that internet and related technologies have created a new aspect which was utilized by mental healthcare, especially in Australia. The authors proposed that the technological developments can transform mental healthcare and provide opportunities for clinical practice as well as on research on mental health. Additionally, the technologies can also provide opportunities for consumer empowerment and integrate information to health systems. However, there are also certain emerging issues that have been identified, and needs to be dealt with (Yuksel et al., 2016). These issues includes the need for further evaluation of eHealth systems, need for new models of funding and ethical regulatory frameworks. Technology also poses certain concerns in healthcare such as satisfying the need for human care (which technology cannot provide fully) and ensuring social equality (as the service can only cater to individuals with internet connectivity) (Piwek et al., 2016). This highlights the fact that even though technology can be beneficial to mental healthcare, it still has certain important concerns that should be addressed and focused on to ensure that utilization of these technologies do not result in unequal distribution of care.

Technologies can significantly impact nursing practice and profession. Advances in technology have ensured safety for both patients and their families, and new equipments have improved the efficiency of care (Weaver et al., 2016). In nursing profession, technology has also provided some key advantages such as: 1. Better communication between the nurse and patients, through the usage of electronic health records that is updated with patient details. The patient can also contact the nurses more easily, and the nurse can share information with the patients faster through the use of technology. 2. It can help to improve the practice presence of the nurse by ensuring that all the necessary data is available for treatment or therapy. 3. Improving the positive approach towards treatment, instead of focusing on the negative aspects (such as distraction due to technology) and developing strategies where errors in medical decision can be identified and rectified using technology (Kvedar et al., 2014; Lee et al., 2015).

Thompson et al. (2018) studied whether digital technologies should be used to treat psychotic disorders. The Authors assessed the use of technologies such as online treatments, mobile apps, short messaging services, experience sampling methods, therapeutic games, virtual therapies and augmented realities. The authors found that the assumption that individual suffering from mental health conditions are less likely to use technology to be untrue, and pointed out that individuals suffering from such conditions are more likely to engage in technological interventions. This was exhibited by high rate of ownership of mobile phones, usage of mobile health interventions, and social media habits, which are similar to that of their peers (Kannisto et al., 2017). This shows that the technological advances can be utilized by the nurses to help individuals suffering from mental health conditions and thus improve their treatment.

The Impact of Technology on Mental Healthcare

Christensen and Petrie (2013) suggested that information technology is the key to accelerate the advances in mental healthcare. Through the use of technology, healthcare providers and nurses can easily disseminate information from researches and accelerate discoveries in healthcare, thereby developing newer strategies of mental health care. It can also create new roles in the healthcare workforce, such as the ‘online barefoot psychologists’ who can provide easily accessible diagnosis for mental health conditions and ‘knowledge brokers’ who can explain the clinical information to the patients with low literacy. A nurse can be engaged in these aspects, helping the patient in the assessment of their mental health as well as educating the patients or their families on care strategies (Lustgarten & Elhai, 2018; Glick et al., 2016).

Conclusion:

It can thus be concluded that technology can significantly improve the system of healthcare for mental health conditions, integrating systems that improve the collection of clinical data and support clinical decision making. Technology can also help to develop communication between the patient and the healthcare team, and improve accessibility of care for the patients, regardless of the location of the patient (distance or remoteness). Nurses can use such technological advances to ensure better care which can be availed to anyone with internet connectivity.

References:

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Christensen, H., & Petrie, K. (2013). Information technology as the key to accelerating advances in mental health care. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(2), 114-116. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0004867412471088?journalCode=anpa

Donker, T., Blankers, M., Hedman, E., Ljotsson, B., Petrie, K., & Christensen, H. (2015). Economic evaluations of Internet interventions for mental health: a systematic review. Psychological medicine, 45(16), 3357-3376. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Donkerea_2015_iCEA_PsychMed.pdf

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