Bridging the Mental Health Treatment Gap through Tele-psychiatry - 'IMPACT-India', a Formative Research Project from Goa, India

通过远程精神病学缩小心理健康治疗差距 - 印度果阿的形成性研究项目“IMPACT-India”

• 批准号: MR/N021886/1
• 负责人: Richard Velleman
• 金额: $ 11.61万
• 依托单位: Sangath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FN021886%2F1
• 关键词: Bridging; Mental; Health; Treatment; Gap

India has a significant burden of mental illness with almost 70 million people having some form of mental illness. This problem is compounded by an acute shortage of trained specialist manpower to provide mental healthcare to those who require it. The existing manpower can only provide care for one third of the mental health needs. Furthermore, 70% of this manpower is inequitably concentrated in urban areas while 70% of the Indian population lives in the villages. This mismatch is a great public health challenge and there is an urgent need to look at innovative ways to overcome this barrier to access. Affordable technology, which is easily accessible in India today, might provide the turning point in the field of mental healthcare delivery. In this project we plan to use videoconferencing technology to provide mental healthcare for patients attending primary care clinics. We plan to discover whether such an innovation is feasible and safe to deliver, acceptable to the various stakeholders and has a positive impact on the mental health of the people. Videoconferencing facilities will be established between District Hospital and Primary Health Centres, where most patients access health care. Patients with Depression, Alcohol use disorders and Severe mental illness will be identified by research workers, who will be offered consultations with a psychiatrist based in the District Hospital via videoconferencing. Medication and follow up services will be provided in the primary health centres. Before-after assessment will measure change in symptoms and disability level. Since the service is delivered in the community we expect better compliance rates. In-depth interviews will be conducted with all stakeholders including service delivery agents, patients and their families to determine the acceptability of tele-psychiatry. Demonstrating that delivering mental health care through tele-psychiatry is feasible and acceptable has significant policy implication. Tele-psychiatry can then play a transformational role in mental health delivery in low resource settings.

印度精神疾病负担沉重，近7000万人患有某种形式的精神疾病。此外，受过训练的精神科专科医生人手严重短缺，只可应付三分之一的精神健康需要。此外，70%的人力集中在城市地区，而70%的印度人口生活在那些村庄。这种不匹配是一个巨大的公共卫生挑战，迫切需要寻找创新方法来克服这一障碍。负担得起的技术，这是很容易在印度今天，可能会提供在精神卫生保健提供领域的转折点。在这个项目中，我们计划使用视频会议技术为参加初级保健诊所的患者提供精神保健。我们计划探索这种创新是否可行、是否安全、是否能为各利益相关者所接受，并对人们的心理健康产生积极影响。地区医院和初级卫生中心之间将建立视频会议设施，大多数患者都可以在这些中心获得医疗保健。研究工作者将确定抑郁症、酒精使用障碍和严重精神疾病患者，并通过视频会议向他们提供与地区医院精神病医生的咨询。初级保健中心将提供药物治疗和后续服务。前后评估将衡量症状和残疾程度的变化。由于这项服务是在社区提供的，我们期望有更好的遵守率。将与所有利益攸关方，包括服务提供者、病人及其家属进行深入访谈，以确定远程精神病学的可接受性。证明通过远程精神病学提供精神卫生保健是可行的和可接受的具有重要的政策含义。远程精神病学可以在低资源环境下的心理健康服务中发挥变革性作用。

项目成果

Integrating assisted tele-psychiatry into primary healthcare in Goa, India: a feasibility study.

• DOI: 10.1017/gmh.2021.47
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: CAMBRIDGE PRISMS-GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH
• 作者: Garg, Ankur;Agrawal, Ravindra;Velleman, Richard;Rane, Anil;Costa, Sheina;Gupta, Devika;Dsouza, Ethel;Jambhale, Abhijeet;Sabnis, Akshada;Fernandes, Godwin;Bhatia, Urvita;Nadkarni, Abhijit
• 通讯作者: Nadkarni, Abhijit