Michelle Blanchard, PhD Candidate, Orygen Youth Health
Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of
Melbourne & Research Project Manager, Inspire Foundation,
writes about her research findings on the use of technology by
health care professionals...
There is an emergent 'buzz' in the sector. At
conferences, training workshops and networking events, the
importance of technology in young people's lives is identified time
and time again as an issue of both enormous potential and
concern. There is an acknowledgement that that's where we as
a sector need to be to reach more young people, yet little is known
about the extent to which professionals who work with young people
utilise information communication technology in their practice.
My doctoral research aims to better understand the ways in which
professionals who work with young people use ICT in their practice
as well as to understand the barriers and enablers to the effective
use of technology. It does this through three phases: 1) an online
questionnaire to be completed by 200+ clinicians nationally 2) an
organisational audit incorporating indepth interviews and a review
of policy documents at six multidisciplinary youth services
nationally and 3) interviews with key informants and thought
leaders.
The study is entering it's third and final year and looking at
responses from 233 professionals who work with young people and the
first round of interviews, it is clear that the sector is
beginning to see significant potential for incorporation of
technology into their work with young people. Participants
reported that using information communication technology helps
to:
- Build credibility and rapport with young people eg by using
Facebook in assessments, SMS and email
- Facilitate easy contact eg SMS appointment reminders,
email follow up
- Add value to face to face engagement eg by using online CBT
programs can be used as a clinical adjunct
- Online factsheets to clarify issues discussed
Participants primarily use ICT to
- print information for clients and carers (86.2%)
- maintain client records (61.6%) and
- to refer clients and carers to websites (57.1%)
But if they had the resources and capacity, they'd like to
- provide appointment reminders via SMS (36.9%),
- do video/teleconferencing (35.7%),
- email clients (28%) and
- maintain client records online (26.6%)
Participants identified a number of barriers to utilising ICT in
their practice:
Poor infrastructure, including
- Blocked (clinically relevant) information
- Internet connections disconnecting periodically or being too
slow
- Prohibitive policies and unsupportive management driven by
concerns regarding time wasting by staff and duty of care
Concern of intrusion into personal lives
Interestingly very few of those involved in the study thought
that you lacked the skills to use ICT effectively or that ICT based
interventions had not been proved effective.
So, given the growing evidence that ICT based interventions can
add value to health care professionals work in promotion,
prevention, early intervention and treatment, how does the sector
address the barriers to utilising and ensure that their
practice is reflective of 'where young people are at?' My
hypotheses is that the potential of ICT to improve the mental
health and wellbeing of young people is an idea that is approaching
it's tipping point, and that in the next year or two we will
witness a significant shift. However this shift will only
impact young Australians if at the same time, it is accompanied by
a significant investment in technology infrastructure, a shift from
viewing the internet simply as a tool for the dissemination of
health information and the development of policies that support
innovation.