Abstract
Introduction: Responding to COVID-19, community mental health teams in the UK NHS abruptly adopted remote consultations. Whilst they have demonstrable effectiveness, efficiency, and economic benefits, questions remain around the acceptability, feasibility and medicolegal implications of delivering community mental health care remotely. Aim: To explore perceived advantages, challenges, and practice adaptations of delivering community mental health care remotely.
Methods: Ten community mental health teams in an NHS trust participated in a service evaluation about remote consultation. Fifty team discussions about remote consultation were recorded April–December 2020. Data analysis used a framework approach with themes being coded within a matrix.
Results: Three major horizontal themes of operations and team functioning, clinical pathways, and impact on staff were generated, with vertical themes of advantages, challenges, equity and adaptations.
Discussion: Remote consultation is an attractive model of community mental healthcare. Clinical staff note benefits at individual (staff and service-user), team, and service levels. However, it is not perceived as a universally beneficial or practical approach, and there are concerns relating to access equality.
Implications for Practice: The suitability of remote consultation needs to be considered for each service-user, clinical population and clinical role. This requires a flexible and hybrid approach, attuned to safeguarding equality.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 857-868 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 11 Mar 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Oct 2024 |
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable requestFunding
All research at the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Cambridge is supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC‐1215‐20014) and NIHR Applied Research Centre. AB is supported by NIHR grants for two separate studies and was supported by Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust (CPFT) to conduct this study. AM's Clinical Lectureship is charity funded by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, CPFT or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Funders | Funder number |
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Anna Freud Centre | |
National Institute for Health and Care Research | |
Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust | |
NIHR Applied Research Centre | |
NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | BRC‐1215‐20014 |
NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre |
Keywords
- communication
- community mental health services
- digital technology
- health equity
- health services administration
- mental health
- psychiatry
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Phychiatric Mental Health