Digital mental healthcare is helpful, but no replacement for real thing, patients say

Clients in mental health care are mostly positive about the use of digital resources, but hardly anybody thinks it is a good idea to move to completely digital health care. Most people see it as an addition to their physical treatment, results from a study conducted by the client organization MIND and the Netherlands Patients Federation showed. Over 800 people receiving psychological care participated in the study.

Most of the respondents were positive about chat conversations with medical personnel (62 percent). Apps have also left a positive impression on around half of the people who use them. The satisfaction level regarding online questionnaires is also at a similar level.

Respondents are considerably less enthusiastic about video calling: only a quarter are positive about it. Online self-help scored the lowest, with 23 percent having positive opinions about it.

“The findings underline the importance of personalized care: digital resources can help with recovery if it is well tailored to the needs and wishes of the client,” the organizations concluded after the study. Only 11 percent of the respondents are in favor of fully digital mental health care.

For most clients, the reason for the preference for physical contact is the absence of verbal communication in digital care. It is also easier to avoid difficult subjects with digital communication resources. “I often pretend to be better than I am. Nobody notices that online,” one of the participants wrote as an explanation. One other said: “via a screen, I can easily avoid what actually needs to be spoken about.”

Most clients feel that personal contact is important in order to build up a good relationship with their medical professional. Not many of the respondents have experience with virtual reality, but the small group that do, are positive about it.

Often mentioned benefits of digital care are that people do not have to travel for it, and various digital resources are available 24 hours a day. Digital care also makes it possible for people to “work on their recovery from trusted surroundings.”