An Integrated Blueprint for Digital Mental Health Services Amidst COVID-19

Balcombe, Luke; Leo, Diego De

doi:10.2196/21718

Cited by 53 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Research should also explore newer strategies using machine learning and artificial intelligence to build predictive models to inform risk profiles for future pandemics and determine possible phenotypes that could allow service providers to modulate care and overall outcomes. The role of artificial intelligence, digital tools to collect real-time data, combining online and off-line data with in-person data needs to be enabled to enrich research data to support better care models [26].…”

Section: Recommendations For Researchers and Research Fundersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadmap to strengthen global mental health systems to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Maulik

Thornicroft

Saxena

2020

Int J Ment Health Syst

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Background: The COVID pandemic has been devastating for not only its direct impact on lives, physical health, socioeconomic status of individuals, but also for its impact on mental health. Some individuals are affected psychologically more severely and will need additional care. However, the current health system is so fragmented and focused on caring for those infected that management of mental illness has been neglected. An integrated approach is needed to strengthen the health system, service providers and research to not only manage the current mental health problems related to COVID but develop robust strategies to overcome more long-term impact of the pandemic. A series of recommendations are outlined in this paper to help policy makers, service providers and other stakeholders, and research and research funders to strengthen existing mental health systems, develop new ones, and at the same time advance research to mitigate the mental health impact of COVID19. The recommendations refer to low, middle and high resource settings as capabilities vary greatly between countries and within countries. Discussion: The recommendations for policy makers are focused on strengthening leadership and governance, finance mechanisms, and developing programme and policies that especially include the most vulnerable populations. Service provision should focus on accessible and equitable evidence-based community care models commensurate with the existing mental health capacity to deliver care, train existing primary care staff to cater to increased mental health needs, implement prevention and promotion programmes tailored to local needs, and support civil societies and employers to address the increased burden of mental illness. Researchers and research funders should focus on research to develop robust information systems that can be enhanced further by linking with other data sources to run predictive models using artificial intelligence, understand neurobiological mechanisms and community-based interventions to address the pandemic driven mental health problems in an integrated manner and use innovative digital solutions. Conclusion: Urgent action is needed to strengthen mental health system in all settings. The recommendations outlined can be used as a guide to develop these further or identify new ones in relation to local needs.

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Section: Recommendations For Researchers and Research Fundersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadmap to strengthen global mental health systems to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Maulik

Thornicroft

Saxena

2020

Int J Ment Health Syst

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“…The development or adaptation of screening and tracking tools to assess and monitor mental health outcomes in high-risk populations, such as COVID-19 patients, healthcare providers, and those in quarantine, could be particularly helpful during this crisis. Screening web platforms, apps, and chatbots are highly scalable and, if coupled with artificial intelligence, have the potential of identifying mental health pressing needs and referring or providing first-aid responses to at-risk subjects ( 57 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating COVID-19 Impact on the Portuguese Population Mental Health: The Opportunity That Lies in Digital Mental Health

Mendes-Santos

Andersson

Weiderpass

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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COVID-19 mitigation measures present unprecedented challenges in mental healthcare delivery, posing high risk to the mental health of at-risk populations, namely patients diagnosed with COVID-19, frontline healthcare providers, and those submitted to quarantine or isolation measures, as well as the general population. Ensuring safe and equitable access to mental healthcare by these groups entails resorting to innovative psychosocial intervention strategies, such as digital mental health. In this perspective piece, we describe the impact of COVID-19 on the Portuguese population's mental health, present an overview on initiatives developed to address the challenges currently faced by the Portuguese mental healthcare system, and discuss how the timely implementation of a comprehensive digital mental health strategy, coupling research, education, implementation, and quality assessment initiatives, might buffer COVID-19's impact on the Portuguese society.

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“…In general, cost-effectiveness and possible service efficiencies are underinvestigated, but they are an important consideration for real-world implementation. Future research should focus on developing guidelines and blueprints for how to best integrate telehealth care into clinical practice [ 66 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of Telehealth Services to Assess, Monitor, and Treat Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Systematic Review

Valentine¹,

Hall²,

Young³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background In response to COVID-19, there has been increasing momentum in telehealth development and delivery. To assess the anticipated exponential growth in telehealth, it is important to accurately capture how telehealth has been used in specific mental health fields prior to the pandemic. Objective This systematic review aimed to highlight how telehealth has been used with clinical samples in the neurodevelopmental field, including patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), their families, and health care professionals. To identify which technologies show the greatest potential for implementation into health services, we evaluated technologies for effectiveness, economic impact, and readiness for clinical adoption. Methods A systematic search of literature was undertaken in April 2018 and updated until December 2019, by using the Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE, and PsycInfo databases. Extracted data included the type of technology, how the technology was used (ie, assessment, treatment, and monitoring), participant characteristics, reported outcomes and authors’ views on clinical effectiveness, user impact (ie, feasibility and acceptability), economic impact, and readiness for clinic adoption. A quality review of the research was performed in accordance with the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence. Results A total of 42 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies included participants and family members with autism spectrum disorders (21/42, 50%), attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (8/42, 19%), attention deficit hyperactivity or autism spectrum disorders (3/42, 7%), communication disorders (7/42, 17%), and tic disorders (2/42, 5%). The focus of most studies (33/42, 79%) was on treatment, rather than assessment (4/42, 10%) or monitoring (5/42, 12%). Telehealth services demonstrated promise for being clinically effective, predominantly in relation to diagnosing and monitoring NDDs. In terms of NDD treatment, telehealth services were usually equivalent to control groups. There was some evidence of positive user and economic impacts, including increased service delivery efficiency (eg, increased treatment availability and decreased waiting times). However, these factors were not widely recorded across the studies. Telehealth was demonstrated to be cost-effective in the few studies that considered cost-effectiveness. Study quality varied, as many studies had small sample sizes and inadequate control groups. Of the 42 studies, only 11 (26%) were randomized controlled trials, 12 (29%) were case studies or case series, 6 (14%) were qualitative studies, and 5 (12%) were noncomparative trials. Conclusions Telehealth has the potential to increase treatment availability, decrease diagnosis waiting times, and aid in NDD monitoring. Further research with more robust and adequately powered study designs that consider cost-effe...

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An Integrated Blueprint for Digital Mental Health Services Amidst COVID-19

Cited by 53 publications

References 23 publications

Roadmap to strengthen global mental health systems to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Roadmap to strengthen global mental health systems to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Mitigating COVID-19 Impact on the Portuguese Population Mental Health: The Opportunity That Lies in Digital Mental Health

Implementation of Telehealth Services to Assess, Monitor, and Treat Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Systematic Review

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