Augmenting Mental Health Support for Patients Accessing Different Degrees of Formal Psychiatric Care through a Supportive Text Messaging Program: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Methods and Protocols

article

Raquel da Luz Dias¹  Reham Shalaby³  Belinda Agyapong³  Gloria Obuobi-Donkor²  Medard K. Adu²  Ejemai Eboreime³  Samuel Obeng Nkrumah¹  Sanjana Sridharan¹  Patryk Simon⁴  Bryanne Taylor⁴  Neal Henderson⁴  Mathew D. White⁴  Hugh Maguire⁴  Gerald Gray⁴  Faisal Rahman⁴  Janah Fair⁴  Nadine Wadden⁴  Mutiat Sulyman⁴  Olugbenga Williams⁴  Oluseye Akinkunmi⁴  Dorothy Edem⁴  Pamela Arenella⁴  Jason Morrison²  Mahmoud Awara⁴  Anand Natarajan⁴  Abraham Nunes⁴  Tomas Hajek⁴  Claire O’Donavan⁴  Rudolf Uher²  JianLi Wang²  Benjamin Rusak²  Lori Wozney²  Tara Sampalli⁶  Doris Grant⁶  Gail Tomblin Murphy⁶  Jordan Warford⁶  Samantha Hodder⁸  Rachel Boe⁹  Vincent Israel Opoku Agyapong¹ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry, Nova Scotia Health;Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University;Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta;Mental Health and Addictions Program, Nova Scotia Health;Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University;Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub;Mental Health and Addictions Program, IWK Health;School of Nursing, Cape Breton University;Addictions and Mental Health, Horizon Health Network

关键词: mental health;    cognitive–behavioural therapy;    text messaging;    e-health;    health services;    hospital admission;    community mental health services;   

DOI  :  10.3390/mps6010019

学科分类：电力

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Patients feel more vulnerable when accessing community mental health programs for the first time or after being discharged from psychiatric inpatient units. Long wait times for follow-up appointments, shortage of mental health professionals, lack of service integration, and scarcity of tailored support can weaken their connection to the health care system. As a result, patients can present low adherence, dissatisfaction with treatment, and recurrent hospitalizations. Finding solutions to avoid unnecessary high-cost services and providing tailored and cost-effective mental health interventions may reduce the health system burden and augment patient support. We propose implementing an add-on, supportive text messaging service (Text4Support), developed using cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) principles to augment mental health support for patients attending to or being discharged from psychiatric care in Nova Scotia, Canada. This randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of Text4Support in improving mental health outcomes and overall mental well-being compared with usual care. We also will examine the intervention’s impact on health services utilization and patient satisfaction. The results from this study will provide evidence on stepped and technology-based mental health care, which will contribute to generating new knowledge about mental health innovations in various clinical contexts, which is not only helpful for the local context but to other jurisdictions in Canada and abroad that are seeking to improve their health care.

【 授权许可】

CC BY