Abstract
Objective:To guide the efficient and effective provision of mental health services to clients in Central West and Far North Queensland, we surveyed preferences for face-to-face or in-person contact.Methods:A clinician-designed survey of contact preferences was offered to 248 clients of mental health services in Far North and Central West Queensland in mid-2020. With the onset of COVID-19, the survey was modified to measure the impact of the pandemic.Results:Just over half of the services’ clients participated in the survey (50.4%), of whom more were female (63.2%). Of the participants, 46.3% in Far North and 8.6% in Central West Queensland identified as Indigenous. Strong resistance to telehealth before the pandemic across groups (76%) was moderated during COVID-19 (42.4%), an effect that appeared likely to continue past the pandemic for Central West clients (34.5%). Far North clients indicated their telehealth reluctance would return after the pandemic (77.6%).Conclusions:Our results suggest that remote Australians strongly prefer in-person mental health care to telehealth. Although the COVID-19 pandemic increased acceptance of telehealth across regions while social distancing continued, there was evidence that Indigenous Australians were more likely to prefer in-person contact after the pandemic.
Highlights
COVID-19 affected preferences, with 44 clients (35.2%) preferring telehealth to face-to-face consultations during the pandemic, and 53 (42.4%) accepting telehealth after the pandemic
Communication and cultural factors can prevent engagement for Indigenous people.[8]. While these speculations require substantiation, they are consistent with evidence that culturally sensitive and appropriately staffed telehealth services can improve engagement and outcomes for Indigenous Australians.[12]
Provision of mental health services in remote Australia differs dramatically to services delivered in major city areas, demanding tailored and culturally appropriate services
Summary
This project was deemed a low-risk quality assurance project by the Far North Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (review number 1499 AB). C. Were you happy with either face-to-face or telehealth sessions with the RFDS clinician? B. Would you prefer your telehealth consultations to continue beyond pandemic periods? Doctor Service (RFDS) in Far North and Central West Queensland (FNS/CWS). Both services comprise mental health nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and psychologists providing culturally appropriate, evidence-based, psychological therapies to individuals who present with mild to moderate mental health needs. Non-participation was higher in FNS (n = 81; 54.7%) than CWS (n = 42; 42.0%) partly because more clients had no recorded phone number (n = 23; 15.5% vs n = 2; 2.0%). Survey procedures Three attempts were made to contact participants by phone by four FNS/CWS clinicians. Statistical analyses were performed using the statistical software package R version 3.5.1. (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria)
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