Digital Mental Health and Use in Psychiatric Nursing

Abstract

The use of digital technologies in mental health, development, well-being and management of mental illnesses has recently become a prominent issue in contemporary psychiatric nursing. Digital mental health interventions provide patients and healthcare professionals with new treatment options to increase access to mental health services by supplementing existing traditional services or providing new services to those in need. Videoconferencing, a widely used digital mental health intervention, is a good option for patients living in rural areas who travel long distances to meet with a psychiatrist. In this way, access, accessibility and service quality of mental health services increase. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to examine the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions and their use in psychiatric nursing. Studies show that digital mental health interventions increase patients’ medication and treatment compliance, quality of life, social functionality and verbal communication skills, while reducing disease symptoms, hospital readmission and length of stay. In this context, it is recommended to disseminate digital health practices in psychiatry and psychiatric nursing, to conduct research examining the effectiveness of the practices, to meet the information needs about the practices and to train health professionals.