Health Professionals’ Attitudes towards Electronic Psychosocial Assessments in Youth Mental Healthcare

Abstract

Psychosocial assessments can help mental health professionals establish good therapeutic relationships while simultaneously conducting holistic assessments of their young clients. Using technology to conduct assessments may increase disclosure by young people; however, the uptake of new technologies into current face-to-face practice has been slow. In the current study, we were interested in exploring the attitudes of mental health workers to using an electronic psychosocial assessment tool (e-tool) within face-to-face service delivery with adolescents and young adults. An exploratory design was used to identify and qualitatively describe the views of 46 mental health workers from services across the ACT and Victoria, Australia. Data were coded using an inductive thematic approach. Comments indicated that mental health workers held both positive and negative views about the e-tool. Some participants believed that it would allow disclosure to occur in a stepped process, normalize questions, give youth greater input, and be time efficient. However, the majority believed that the e-tool would infringe on their work because they needed to respond to their clients immediately, it would not provide an accurate representation of the client, young people did not have the necessary capabilities to engage in the process, they would miss non-verbal cues from the young person, and they were more likely to gain information from organic conversations. The results suggest that many mental health professionals may be fearful of incorporating new technologies in current practice. Specific training and supportive implementation guidelines must be developed to support use of these new technologies and change practice.

Acceptability and utility of an electronic psychosocial assessment (myAssessment) to increase self-disclosure in youth mental healthcare: a quasi-experimental study

“…myAssessment was developed using human-centered design principles [ 34 ] which involved extensive research with stakeholders in order to determine functionality requirements and attitudes and beliefs around such an application [ 25 , 35 , 36 ]. In addition to the previously identified benefit of potentially obtaining higher rates of initial disclosure [ 29 ], this preparatory research highlighted other possible benefits and concerns.…”

“…In addition to the previously identified benefit of potentially obtaining higher rates of initial disclosure [ 29 ], this preparatory research highlighted other possible benefits and concerns. Both young people and clinicians felt that by using the application prior to the first appointment, young people would be given increased control in the treatment process as they could organize their thoughts and indicate what it was that they most wanted to speak about via a ‘flagging’ function [ 25 , 35 , 36 ]. Both groups also felt that the application would offer greater time efficiency as they could focus more on the important issues in session and spend less time on gathering less necessary information [ 25 , 35 ].…”

“…Both young people and clinicians felt that by using the application prior to the first appointment, young people would be given increased control in the treatment process as they could organize their thoughts and indicate what it was that they most wanted to speak about via a ‘flagging’ function [ 25 , 35 , 36 ]. Both groups also felt that the application would offer greater time efficiency as they could focus more on the important issues in session and spend less time on gathering less necessary information [ 25 , 35 ]. Separately, young people felt that using the application would decrease their fears that their responses might be negatively judged by the clinician [ 25 ], and clinicians felt the extra information obtained early in the clinical process could help them formulate a treatment plan [ 35 ].…”

Digital psychosocial assessment: An efficient and effective screening tool

“…in a systematic review showed that adolescents considered a self‐administered tool to be much more acceptable than face‐to‐face interview, which relies on direct disclosure of personal and intimate details to a relative stranger. Furthermore, digital survey tools were identified as possible solutions that could help engage young people who were not comfortable with interpersonal communication or talking about psychosocial stresses, and increased their perception of confidentiality . A survey of young people supported the use of an electronically administered questionnaire, as respondents could disclose concerns without fear of judgement by health professionals, and also provided young people with more control over the assessment …”

“…In their feasibility study with 80 adolescents, 99% completed the survey, 92% found it easy to understand and easy to use, 91% felt comfortable or very comfortable with the content of the questions asked, 9% felt neutral and none felt uncomfortable . TickiT implements the desirable aspects of perceived privacy and control without judgement, identified in previous studies . A limitation of the TickiT platform is that while its usability has been demonstrated, its effectiveness for the HEEADSSS assessment is yet to be evaluated.…”