Remote mental health clients prefer face-to-face consultations to telehealth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australas Psychiatry
; 30(1): 18-22, 2022 02.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34570635
ABSTRACT
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.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Saúde Mental
/
Telemedicina
/
COVID-19
/
Serviços de Saúde Mental
Tipo de estudo:
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article