"Would You Like to Skype With Your Daughter?": A Qualitative Feasibility Study of Video Telecommunication in a Psychogeriatric Hospital.

Abstract

An informational event for nursing staff was used to introduce VTC into the psychogeriatric ward of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Tuebingen. We used tablet PCs (iPad 2 Wi-Fi 16 GB; Apple Inc, Cupertino, CA) and the freeware Skype (Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA), since it is broadly available for all platforms. We recruited dyads of patients with cognitive impairment and their relatives (ie, partners, children, grandchildren, or friends) by addressing them directly. All patients received psychiatric treatment as usual with psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and sociotherapeutic components during the study period. To assess the process from all angles, we gathered qualitative data in three different ways. First, we interviewed the participating patients (weekly, or just once if they refused VTC), the patients' relatives (weekly, or just once if they refused VTC), patients of an outpatient clinic in a focus group, and the nursing staff of the psychogeriatric ward (focus groups, three times during ongoing intervention). Second, while screening potential participants, we documented the reasons given for not participating in the study. Those participants agreed to the use of this information. Finally, we documented all developments and actions during the study in a research diary.