Hi-tech mental health help
ANY teenager seeking help for a mental illness will soon be able to connect “immediately” with highly personalised care as part of a new online platform promising to “Uberise” mental health care.
A major barrier for young people seeking care — especially those living in remote areas — is limited access to high-quality mental health services.
About 3.9 million Aussies experienced a mental health disorder in the past 12 months but only 1.8 million — less than half — accessed treatment.
The “Project Synergy” platform does not provide direct medical advice but instead “guides and supports” patients and their health professionals to decide suitable care options, according to a supplement published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The Federal Governmentbacked tool does this by collecting their personal and health information which is “stored, scored and reported back” in an effort to promote collaborative care.
“It puts the person at the centre of their own care and is data-driven and delivered immediately … in real-time … thereby facilitating right care, first time,” authors of the supplement wrote.
The platform has already been tested on four groups of young people: those who are attending university, at risk of suicide, living in disadvantaged NSW communities and attending headspace centres.
Lead author Ian Hickie, from the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, said digitally enhanced care — which he described as an “Uberisation of services” — was unavoidable.
“Given the rapid spread of health-information technologies and the unmet demand for mental health services, extensive deployment of digitally enhanced care is now inevitable,” Professor Hickie wrote in the journal article.
“People expect access to digital tools that support greater choice, convenience, lower cost and higher quality care. However, given the broader sociopolitical concerns about the impacts of health-information technologies, those engaged in this deployment will need to answer substantive ethical, legal and funding questions.”
Prof Hickie said these questions need to be addressed “urgently” and explore whether the services provided should be government- funded or for-profit entities, as well as look at whether they require a high level or regulation or minimal oversight.
There has been increased scrutiny on mental health in NSW after a stabbing and an incident where a woman allegedly beheaded her mother. Both offenders had a history of mental illness.
The Federal Government has invested $30 million in the Project Synergy platform.
Trials are expected to finish next year.