More information
Description
The objective of the project is to improve the prevention and mitigate health inequalities by implementing a telemedicine model in the area of psychiatry. The project will allow the pilot implementation and testing of a telemedicine model in the area of psychiatry. The project will ensure psychiatric support in the form of video consultations and remote advice of physicians for patients affected with depression and other mental diseases whose considerable proliferation is related to impoverishment, job loss, a decline in the quality of family and social relationships and contacts, the feeling of being unable to affect one’s life and life choices, lack of opportunities to pursue one’s former activities, passions and long-term goals, and SARS-CoV-2 quarantine or treatment.
The project is addressed to people who ask to have their mental condition examined and wish to know whether their reaction to current circumstances is a disease or just a defensive mechanism. The project is addressed to both teenagers and adults in need of support. The target group to which the project is addressed are mentally disrupted people in need of widely understood support who have not yet undergone treatment or interrupted it due to lack of accessibility. This includes both people of working age and professionally passive people. The target group includes mainly beneficiaries who lack adequate accessibility to potentially or actually obtain specialist medical advice in the area of psychiatry and to receive the support they require, especially those residing in excluded areas. For this reason, a particularly important group of final project beneficiaries are patients from excluded areas who so far have not taken advantage of psychiatric care due to difficult access to psychiatrists and the related travel costs. Another target group is medical staff that gains knowledge and experience concerning the use of telemedicine methods to improve the access of patients to psychiatric care.
Summary of project results
Project No. 2159: Implementation and Use of Video Consultations in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression – A Telemedicine Model in Psychiatry
The project was conducted from April 2023 to January 2024, focusing on implementing a patient-centered approach and involving various levels of healthcare and specialized services to support individuals experiencing depression. It aimed to provide psychiatric care for patients through video consultations on a dedicated platform, which enhanced service accessibility and allowed psychiatric care to be extended to patients previously excluded for various reasons.
The project targeted individuals in need of support who had not yet received treatment or had discontinued treatment due to limited access to mental health services. Those eligible for support included individuals diagnosed with depression, those experiencing severe stress reactions, or those with adjustment or depression-anxiety disorders, regardless of residence, gender, age, or professional status. Participation in the project was free of charge.
Tasks were completed to meet the project’s objectives, including project management, substantive supervision and evaluation, preventive and promotional activities in public health, project promotion, and testing model solutions with newly purchased equipment. The project was made possible through collaboration with national and one international partner. Project management, substantive supervision, and evaluation were conducted using PRINCE2 project management methodology, supplemented with agile methodologies tailored to implementing new IT solutions. This approach ensured the achievement of project indicators at the highest possible level within the available timeframe.
In terms of preventive and promotional activities, numerous meetings were held to promote mental health prevention and encourage participation in the project. Informational materials on mental health prevention were developed and made available in electronic and paper formats (brochures, leaflets, banners), distributed to project patients, and included on the project’s website.
Model solutions were tested using computer and tablet sets acquired for this purpose, with the telemedicine platform hosted in the cloud. To facilitate this, a phone campaign was conducted to inform patients about the possibility of receiving tablets.
Recruitment of patients was extensive. A total of 1,281 individuals participated in the initial recruitment meeting with a psychiatrist, psychologist, or general practitioner, and login credentials were issued to 1,162 people. Some participants did not qualify due to errors in their contact information or other reasons. Detailed data on this is provided in the evaluation and expert reports. To ensure the scheduled video consultations, recruitment continued until December 3, 2023, with the therapeutic video consultations running until January 15, 2024. In total, 5,083 video consultations were conducted.
To achieve the project’s target indicators, including the "Number of beneficiaries receiving services (using telemedicine for diagnosis/treatment)" and "Number of healthcare services provided to patients 60+," various promotional activities were undertaken, including:
- Open days with the applicant and partners, distributing informational materials about the project to potential patients;
- Information campaigns on radio and television;
- Social media and website campaigns by the leader and partners;
- Distributing promotional materials to senior organizations;
- Informational-promotion activities directed at patients aged 60+ registered with the project’s medical partners.
Conclusions on Model Effectiveness:
- The project observed a low rate of missed appointments.
- A total of 417 individuals from underserved areas without mental health clinics participated, for whom access to telepsychiatry services was a chance to equalize access to psychiatric/psychological care with people living in central areas.
- Despite the short testing period, there was a reduction in depression symptoms in patients, with 38-46% reporting reduced symptom severity according to the PHQ-9 questionnaire.
- Furthermore, 84% of surveyed patients reported an improvement in their mental state, and over 96% said they would recommend video consultations with a psychologist/psychiatrist to others needing mental health support.
Recommendations:
The primary conclusion from the tested model is that the telemedicine model for the treatment and diagnosis of mental disorders is a modern approach to patient care. Testing shows that telemedicine care is as effective in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention as traditional services, with the added benefit of being more accessible. Therefore, it would be advisable to expand the catalog of free healthcare services to include video consultations in mental health due to the growing population in need of assistance.
Indicators
Verification method
Baseline
Value achieved
Number of beneficiaries (women) for whom services are provided or improved (using diagnosis/treatment with the help of telemedicine)
List of patients participating in the project, having login addresses in the telemedicine system, patient records
0
550
Number of beneficiaries (men) for whom services are provided or improved (using diagnosis/treatment with the help of telemedicine)
List of patients participating in the project, having login addresses in the telemedicine system, patient records
0
612
Number of people declaring satisfaction with the services received with the help of new e-health methods
Surveys to assess the degree of satisfaction of beneficiaries (patients and caregivers)
0
741
Number of people from excluded areas covered by health monitoring
patient charts
0
417
Number of health care services provided with the help of modern equipment purchased
patient charts
0
5083
Number of healthcare services provided to patients 60+
patient charts
0
157
Summary of bilateral results
The VCS foreign partner actively participated in the project by supporting the Partnership with knowledge and experience through participation in weekly network meetings, reviewing documents produced as part of the project, and providing expert and content-related support for implemented activities.In addition, the Norwegian Partner organised an online international webinar to discuss the Project results and lessons learned, and then produced a report on the creation of a Virtual Mental Health Care Centre (VMHC) in Poland