Digital gz requires customization

Clients in the mental health system are majority familiar with digital interventions, such as online questionnaires, image calling and self-help modules. But they see digital ggz mainly as a supplement to treatment. This is evident from research by interest group MIND and the Vliegwiel (flywheel) program of the Patient Federation of the Netherlands.

The most frequently used digital tools are online questionnaires and video calls, according to "Digital care in the mental health system from the client's perspective. Respectively 85 and 58 percent of more than eight hundred respondents use these. With online self-help modules, apps and chat conversations, 41 percent, 37 percent and 30 percent respectively have experience. VR is still too little used (2 percent) to draw any firm conclusions.

Virtual reality

Piquant, because it is precisely about the use of VR that those surveyed are decidedly positive. Of the 20 users surveyed, seventy percent are positive. About chat conversations, 62 percent are positive, followed by apps (52 percent) and online questionnaires (49 percent). Users are most negative about image calls (24 percent) and online self-help (23 percent.

Flexibility

The survey reveals a clear division between clients who are positive about digital tools and "a significant group" who say they do not like digital care. The first group cites advantages such as the absence of travel time and costs and the 24-hour availability of digital applications. Convenience, flexibility and the ability to work on recovery from the comfort of one's own familiar environment are important reasons for using digital care. Especially appreciated are applications that provide support outside the treatment room and insight into symptoms patterns.

Impersonal

Skeptics find digital care impersonal and say they need the physical connection with the practitioner to be able to build a bond of trust and open up sufficiently. According to MIND and the Patient Federation, the findings underscore the importance of customization: digital care can help with recovery, provided it is properly tailored to the needs and wishes of the client. Those wishes focus, among other things, on the digital skills of the practitioner, integration into further treatment, secure processing of personal data and the technical functioning of the application.

Personal encounter

Many people additionally indicate that prior to digital contact, they like to have a personal meeting with the practitioner first. Only then do they succeed in opening up and discussing difficult topics during treatment. For this reason, MIND and Patiëntenfederatie Nederland advocate a hybrid approach: digital care as a supplement, not a replacement. Practitioners and clients should also decide together how and to what extent digital care is used, with a physical alternative always remaining available.

Distorted view

The researchers recognize that the survey results may be somewhat biased. With an average age of more than 51, the survey pool is relatively old. "Since adolescents and young adults tend to be more familiar with the use of digital tools, it is possible that they may take their use in mental health services more for granted as well," the researchers said. On the other hand, those surveyed were relatively highly educated. "By using a also online offered and text-based questionnaire in this study, it makes that low-literate people and those without access to the Internet or with limited digital skills may have been unintentionally excluded from participation."