Teaching Yourself About Mental Health Care Using e-Mental Health Programs
Ever thought you’d like to know more about mental health care and CBT but haven’t had the time to do the training? eMH programs can help.
I first thought of using eMH programs to teach GPs about therapy techniques when I was reviewing the alcohol misuse module on Queensland University of Technology’s OnTrack Program. I don’t think I’ve seen a better example of the ways motivational interviewing is carried out anywhere. A quick overview of the principles of Motivational Interviewing (here’s a good article) and a look at this OnTrack program would stand you in very good stead to use these strategies in general practice.
So too Structured Problem Solving – a great technique from CBT that teaches patients how to approach problems in a way that defuses them from emotional content of the problem and allows them to think of solutions that might just work for them. Teaching structured problem solving is easy if you know how to do it yourself and teaching it with one problem helps patients put it to work with other problems in their lives as well. You can learn about structured problem solving here, find a template to do it here or you can register with myCompass (www.myCompass.org.au) and work through the Structured Problem Solving module yourself. By that time you will be ready to teach it to your patients and your children as well!
Many of the programs also have excellent modules about relaxation and mindfulness techniques that you could learn to deliver to your patients and use the online programs to reinforce what you have taught them.
Think again about how you can use eMH resources and let me know if you find any other great ways to teach doctors how to teach patients the skills and strategies they need to improve their mental health.
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”.
UPDATED
The PTSD Program for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Do you know anyone who has difficulty motivating themselves to exercise? I think we all know people who get too depressed to exercise or too anxious to leave the house. But there are other people who, despite a lack of “diagnosis”, find exercise hugely difficult to contemplate.
As someone who has practiced medicine for almost four decades I have had the opportunity to observe firsthand the upsurge in the use of opioid pain killers in non-cancer pain.