Overcoming Technical Barriers to eMH
Are technical problems preventing your patients from accessing eMH?
I've discovered that you don't have to be very far from the city in Australia to have problems with your internet connection.
Limited downloads and low internet speeds can hamper patients’ use of online resources. With determination and imagination, people are coming up with lots of clever solutions.
Libraries are a good place to start. Your regular trip to town can easily include a visit to the local library to use their computers for the online part of a treatment program.
Some practices, in the city as well as in rural areas, have an internet connected computer in a spare room in the surgery to allow patients to use online resources. This has the added advantage of allowing the practice nurse to help out where necessary.
Even in country towns, the local cafe or pub has usually got some Wi-Fi available for customers' use. In a small town in Queensland I recently discovered a Wi-Fi hotspot in the local park!
Programs like THIS WAY UP (which is now available as an app) and myCompass (which will soon be available in that form) will make life easier for those with poor internet connections. Users can download the app wherever they have Wi-Fi and, of course, not need a connection to use it thereafter.
And most programs have taken limited download into account by not including video or audio, or providing transcripts of video or audio clips if they do include them.
MindSpot Virtual Clinic will even post program materials (remember the mailman!) if users are unable to download them to their computers.
It's a shame we have these technical issues to contend with but a little imagination and the grit and determination that this wide brown land is famous for can overcome many of the obstacles.
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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