The introduction and evaluation of telehealth into a mental health service

Introduction: This two-year project involves the introduction and evaluation of telehealth into a mental health service. Phase 1 of the project explores stakeholders’ views on how telehealth in the form of video conferencing could be used to link-up inpatient and community services. Aims and objectives: Identify issues regarding: •• Quality of care •• Length of inpatient stay •• Access, communication, and relationship between inpatient, CMHT staff, service-users, carers •• Unproductive staff time, travel time and cost •• Telehealth for therapeutic work Methods: These were: •• Focus groups, interviews with: staff, service-users •• Literature review •• Piloting of video conferencing facilities Results: The main findings were: •• Focus groups/interviews: (a) isolation of different teams; (b) communication, relationship between teams; (c) staff, service-users’ views on telehealth •• Literature review: identified relevant articles from 2000 onwards on the effectiveness of telehealth in mental health services and guidelines on the uses of video conferencing. •• Utilising the findings of (i) and (ii) to make recommendation. •• Initial findings from the pilot will be presented Conclusions: The combined findings from the focus groups and literature review have identified ways of introducing and evaluating telehealth to the service: •• Per site: 1 meeting room with 1 large screen for team activities (e.g. ward rounds). •• Per site: 1 dedicated computer with web-cam for quickly arranged, 1-1 calls (e.g. professional-professional, practice sharing)