Transcultural telepsychiatry and its impact on patient satisfaction

Abstract

IntroductionNational and International telepsychiatry service was established between Denmark and Sweden in order to increase access to cross-cultural expertise. Patient acceptability study was conducted to assess the patients’ attitudes toward the quality, advantages and disadvantages of telepsychiatry service.MethodsOver a period January 2005-December 2007, 61 patients were treated via telepsychiatry by clinicians that speak patientsrespective mother tongues. Video-conferencing equipment connected the Little Prince Psychiatric Centre in Copenhagen with two hospitals, one asylum seekers’ centre and one social institution in Denmark. These stations were also connected to the Swedish department of the Centre. Number of languages spoken was 9 while the number of nationalities treated was 11. No interpreter assistance has been used.After the end of the telepsychiatry contact all patients were asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire.ResultsPatients reported a high level of acceptance and satisfaction with telepsychiatry. They expressed a wish to use telepsychiatry via their mother tongue, rather than interpreter-assisted mental health care in the future.DiscussionThe restricted physical contact and non-verbal communication of telepsychiatry was compensated by the fact that the doctor and patient spoke the same language and had similar cultural and/or national references. The results of the survey may contribute to further development of, primarily, European Telepsychiatry Network. However, this model may be used for conducting of larger international telepsychiatry service capable to provide mental health care toward diversity of patient populations underserved on their mother tongue worldwide.

Telepsychiatry in intellectual disability psychiatry: literature review

“…None of the studies in this review mentioned the use of interpreters; their incorporation into telepsychiatry, whether for Makaton, other forms of signing or in fact more mainstream language translation, is another potential avenue of research. 40,41 It is feasible that access to expertise via international collaborations using asynchronous methods or taking advantage of time zone differences for synchronous methods could enable, for example, vulnerable intellectual disability populations in underserved areas to access specialist intellectual disability psychiatric care to aid in reducing mental distress. Additional health economic and environmental evaluations in differing healthcare systems could also clarify whether similar models of care are transposable to such systems.…”

Telepsychiatry in actual practice - State of the art according to literature

“…Immigrants and refugees, as well as minority communities in remote areas have a difficulty to access culturally sensitive mental health provider, and in native language. One of the benefits of telepsychiatry could be in connection between psychiatrist and patient whom speak the same language, and have a similar cultural background [77][78][79][80] .…”

Realizing the promises of telepsychiatry in special populations

“…However, other more longitudinal studies corroborate the suggestion that the acceptability of telepsychiatry is associated with adherence to therapy, even in culturally isolated populations. 1,6 For example, in 2010, Mucic showed that in a study of refugees and asylum seekers that there was a high level of satisfaction with telepsychiatric care, and that the participants completed an average of five sessions during the study period. 6 Of course, after confirming acceptability to patients and likelihood of patient adherence, the next step in implementing telepsychiatry is analysis of long-term patient outcomes.…”

“…1,6 For example, in 2010, Mucic showed that in a study of refugees and asylum seekers that there was a high level of satisfaction with telepsychiatric care, and that the participants completed an average of five sessions during the study period. 6 Of course, after confirming acceptability to patients and likelihood of patient adherence, the next step in implementing telepsychiatry is analysis of long-term patient outcomes. A review of one useful metric, readmission rates, was recently conducted by Koblauch et al It was demonstrated that results of studies measuring readmission after telepsychiatry compared to traditional modalities of care have been mixed; some report a reduction in rate, while others show no difference.…”