Rural Interdisciplinary Mental Health Team Building via Satellite: A Demonstration Project

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a demonstration project that examined the role of telehealth/telemedicine (hereafter referred to as telehealth) in providing interdisciplinary mental health training and support to health professionals in a rural region of Atlantic Canada. Special emphasis was placed on addressing the question of how training might affect interdisciplinary collaboration among the rural health professionals. Five urban mental health professionals from three disciplines provided training and support via video-satellite and internet, print and video resources to 34 rural health and community professionals. In order to assess the rural community's needs and the impact of the interventions, questionnaires were administered and on-site interviews were conducted before and after the project. Throughout the project, field notes were recorded and satisfaction ratings were obtained. Satisfaction with the video-satellite presentations was high and stable, with the exception of one session when signal quality was very poor. Rural participants were most satisfied with opportunities for interaction and least satisfied with the variable quality of the video transmission signal. High staff turnover among rural professionals resulted in insufficient power to permit statistical analysis. Positive reports of the project impact included expanded knowledge and heightened sensitivity to mental health issues, increased cross-disciplinary connections, and greater cohesion among professionals. The results suggest that, with some refinements, telehealth technology can be used to facilitate mental health training and promote interdisciplinary collaboration among professionals in a rural setting.

Rural behavioral health services for children and adolescents: An ecological and community psychology analysis

“…When communities have been able to secure these resources, they have found this technology to be appropriate for working with adolescents (Ermer, 1999). This technology has also been used to provide interdisciplinary training in rural areas via videosatellite conferencing (Cornish et al, 2003).…”

Enhancing access to psychologically informed mental health services in rural and northern communities.

“…Developing such relationships from a distance is possible but extremely time consuming and costly (Cornish et al, 2003;McGrath et al, 2009). These factors may place local psychologists in an excellent position to effectively distribute accurate information about self-directed and telepsychology services that may, in turn, enhance willingness to access such services and reduce barriers related to anonymity, independence, and self-reliance.…”

The development and validation of a Televisitation Attitude Scale (TAS).

“…However, acceptance research has been conducted in telehealth -the overall ICT health care delivery system, which includes televisitation. The literature review on telehealth acceptance showed that the implicit -connotative part of attitudes had not been studied (Aarnio et al, 2000;Bowater, 2001;Cheung et al, 1998;Cornish et al, 2003;Davis et al, 2001;H. Lamminen, Tuomi, J. Lamminen, & Uusitalo, 2000;Ho & Jarvis-Selinger, 2005;Jong & Kraishi, 2004;Kumar et al, 2006;Lavoie, 2010;Linassi & Li Pi, 2005;Miller & Levesque, 2002;Ohinmaa, Vuolio, Haukipuro, & Winblad, 2002;Persaud et al, 2005;Saqui et al, 2007).…”

“…The attitudes toward telehealth have been studied in a variety of ways. A review of telehealth literature shows that there have been several studies conducted for measuring satisfaction towards telehealth (Aarnio et al, 2000;Cheung et al, 1998;Cornish et al, 2003;Davis et al, 2001;Ho & Jarvis-Selinger, 2005;Linassi & Li Pi, 2005;Miller & Levesque, 2002;Saqui et al, 2007).…”

“…Lamminen et al, 2000). Some studies have documented the satisfaction of physicians and other new virtual healthcare ICT delivery system users towards telehealth (Aarnio et al, 2000;Bowater, 2001;Cornish et al, 2003;Davis et al, 2001;Jong & Kraishi, 2004).…”