In class, we defined E-mental health as “mental health services and information delivered or enhanced through the internet and related technologies.” These lectures helped me become more familiar with the concept of E-mental health since I had little prior knowledge of it. E-mental health could become the next breakthrough in healthcare considering our nation’s growing use of technology as well as an increase in mental health diagnoses.
When considering the advantages of E-mental health, we can see that with its use, E-mental health could reduce the cost of treatment while making it personalized to every patient. We could also implement treatment and tailor it to each patient's specific needs. E-mental health can also be designed to treat virtually any mental health issue. These technologically-based interventions are also cost-effective and could be very beneficial to those of lower socioeconomic status. This is very important because many mental health disorders often include high costs for therapy treatments and often require absenteeism from work.
As a prospective clinician, I believe the most beneficial advantage of E-mental health is the significantly improved accessibility to these treatments. As a healthcare professional, I believe it is important to provide quality care to those in need no matter the circumstances. With E-mental health we could provide care to those who are unable to seek conventional treatment because of hindrances such as lack of transportation, inadequate insurance coverage, or lack of child care. We could also give care to patients with mental health disorders who want to remain anonymous or fear using conventional treatment methods. Providing treatment would be available every time of day and could be used in various areas such as schools and in the workplace.
Overall, I believe that the use of E-mental health could change the way we seek treatment for mental health within the near future. Combining treatment options with technology is perfect in our time where technology is so prevalent in our everyday lives. Therefore, I am interested to learn more about E-mental health and how it will shape mental health treatment.
I think that the use of technology definitely makes healthcare more accessible for a lot of people. I am curious about what type of apps and websites used to manage e-mental health are already out there and I am eager to learn more about their capabilities as well as their limitations. One idea which is of particular interest to me is that of a "mental health tracker" something like s-health or Fitbit trackers that instead could be used to track mental health. I think this could be really beneficial in tracking the stability of symptoms in treating mental illness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the benefits of e-mental health that you listed. I also agree that technology is becoming more and more important in our society.
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