Preferences of Young Adults With First-Episode Psychosis for Receiving Specialized Mental Health Services Using Technology: A Survey Study

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the potential and interest of using technology for delivering specialized psychiatric services to young adults, surprisingly limited attention has been paid to systematically assess their perspectives in this regard. For example, limited knowledge exists on the extent to which young people receiving specialized services for a first-episode psychosis (FEP) are receptive to using new technologies as part of mental health care, and to which types of technology-enabled mental health interventions they are amenable to.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to assess the interest of young adults with FEP in using technology to receive mental health information, services, and supports.MethodsThis study uses a cross-sectional, descriptive survey design. A convenience sample of 67 participants between the ages of 18 and 35 were recruited from two specialized early intervention programs for psychosis. Interviewer-administered surveys were conducted between December 2013 and October 2014. Descriptive statistics are reported.ResultsAmong the 67 respondents who completed the survey, the majority (85%, 57/67) agreed or strongly agreed with YouTube as a platform for mental health-related services and supports. The top five technology-enabled services that participants were amenable to were (1) information on medication (96%, 64/67); (2) information on education, career, and employment (93%, 62/67); (3) decision-making tools pertaining to treatment and recovery (93%, 62/67); (4) reminders for appointments via text messaging (93%, 62/67); and (5) information about mental health, psychosis, and recovery in general (91%, 61/67). The top self-reported barriers to seeking mental health information online were lack of knowledge on how to perform an Internet search (31%, 21/67) and the way information is presented online (27%, 18/67). Two thirds (67%; 45/67) reported being comfortable in online settings, and almost half (48%; 32/67) reported a preference for mixed formats when viewing mental health information online (eg, text, video, visual graphics).ConclusionsYoung people diagnosed with FEP express interest in using the Internet, social media, and mobile technologies for receiving mental health-related services. Increasing the awareness of young people in relation to various forms of technology-enabled mental health care warrants further attention. A consideration for future research is to obtain more in-depth knowledge on young people’s perspectives, which can help improve the design, development, and implementation of integrated technological health innovations within the delivery of specialized mental health care.

Differences in the Use and Opinions About New eHealth Technologies Among Patients With Psychosis: Structured Questionnaire (Preprint)

“…First, although the findings of our study that related to the access and usability of new technologies in patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders are very similar to data obtained in both previous studies conducted in psychotic patients [9,10,11,16,21] and in studies conducted in Spanish general population [15,23], wider studies are needed to generalize our results to the broader type of psychotic patients in Spain in order to confirm that they are a good target for e-Health interventions.…”

“…In accordance with previous studies [10,15,18,21], the internet is a resource that both patients and the general population use in order to seek information about health.…”

Collaborating with Young Adults Diagnosed with Schizophrenia: A Participatory Design Study to Shape the Healthcare System

“…Since first episode schizophrenia incident rates are approximately two times higher in males than women [21] [50] our sample is gender biased. This might indicate that our findings are in favour of women, however, we did not see any distinct differences in relation to the needs of support in the two genders.…”

“…We wanted to design a service that was "engaging", by grounding the innovation in user needs and by drawing on the power of smartphone technology to extend services beyond the confines of the physical clinic [18] [19] [20]. Smartphone ownership is particularly high in younger people with schizophrenia [21] making the smartphone highly relevant as a tool to respond to service user needs at all times.…”

Recovery After Psychosis: Qualitative Study of Service User Experiences of Lived Experience Videos on a Recovery-Oriented Website (Preprint)

“…Whilst social media provides another route to online peer-to-peer support, using curated peer-based content may help in reaching groups who use social media less, such as mental health consumers aged over 45 [36]. Structured peer-based content in internetbased interventions may also appeal to young people experiencing psychosis who lack knowledge about how to search the internet for mental health information [37], or people experiencing schizophrenia who are interested in sharing information and emotions anonymously with peers [18].…”