Remote mental health clients prefer face-to-face consultations to telehealth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Autor: | Amos AJ; Director of Training, Psychiatry for North Queensland, Townsville, QLD., Middleton J; Manager, Mental Health and Wellbeing teams, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Cairns, QLD., Gardiner FW; Director, Public Health and Research, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Federation, Canberra, ACT. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists [Australas Psychiatry] 2022 Feb; Vol. 30 (1), pp. 18-22. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Sep 27. |
| DOI: | 10.1177/10398562211043509 |
| Abstrakt: | Objective: To guide the efficient and effective provision of mental health services to clients in Central West and Far North Queensland, we surveyed preferences for face-to-face or in-person contact. Methods: A clinician-designed survey of contact preferences was offered to 248 clients of mental health services in Far North and Central West Queensland in mid-2020. With the onset of COVID-19, the survey was modified to measure the impact of the pandemic. Results: Just over half of the services' clients participated in the survey (50.4%), of whom more were female (63.2%). Of the participants, 46.3% in Far North and 8.6% in Central West Queensland identified as Indigenous. Strong resistance to telehealth before the pandemic across groups (76%) was moderated during COVID-19 (42.4%), an effect that appeared likely to continue past the pandemic for Central West clients (34.5%). Far North clients indicated their telehealth reluctance would return after the pandemic (77.6%). Conclusions: Our results suggest that remote Australians strongly prefer in-person mental health care to telehealth. Although the COVID-19 pandemic increased acceptance of telehealth across regions while social distancing continued, there was evidence that Indigenous Australians were more likely to prefer in-person contact after the pandemic. |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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