Advancing telemedicine and task-sharing to improve access to psychotherapy for perinatal populations
摘要
The
In this current study, we examined barriers and facilitators of task-sharing and telemedicine-delivered psychotherapy from a multistakeholder perspective (N = 105). We interviewed perinatal participants (n = 70) who received psychotherapy and specialist or non-specialist providers (n = 35) who delivered psychotherapy in the SUMMIT trial. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis.
ResultsOur results show many facilitators of telemedicine across all stakeholder groups, including alleviating childcare needs through convenience, flexibly, and increased accessibility. Although perinatal participants and providers express that there are some benefits of in-person delivery (e.g., seeing physical cues and minimizing privacy concerns), we find that there are more barriers than facilitators of in-person psychotherapy. Regarding task-sharing, perinatal participants who received treatment from non-specialist and specialist providers report the same facilitators at similar rates, including capacity for active listening and empathy.
ConclusionsOur implementation assessment shows that telemedicine and task-sharing are acceptable, feasible, and patient-centred solutions to improve access to evidence-based psychotherapies across healthcare settings.