Using E-Health Programs to Overcome Barriers to the Effective Treatment of Mental Health and Addiction Problems |
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Authors: | Peter Farvolden John Cunningham Peter Selby |
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Affiliation: | 1. CBT Associates of Toronto, University of Toronto , Toronto, Ontario, Canada drfarvolden@cbtassociates.net;3. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health , Toronto, Ontario, Canada;4. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto Dpts. of Family and Community Medicine, and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, and University of Toronto , Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Abstract: | E-Health programs for mental illness and addictive behaviors have recently emerged as potentially useful self-help resources. Health care professionals will soon have the option of referring clients to free-to-end-user online, expert-moderated e-health programs as complementary means of assisting clients. Such programs will have significant implications for developing improved stepped models of care. This article describes various e-health programs and lessons learned related to access, promotion, user demographics, and patterns of use. In addition, validation procedures, effectiveness and attrition rates, fitting and tailoring, and qualitative analyses of social networks are described. It is difficult to validate e-health programs that are completely anonymous and do not require registration, personal interaction, or membership fees. As competition emerges in the budding e-health industry, best practice guidelines will need to be developed for collecting data and evaluating the utility of these programs. |
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Keywords: | attrition Internet support groups validation |
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