Mental Health and Telehealth

A review on Telemental Health in Scotland was conducted by Dr Harry Millar on behalf of The Scottish Centre for Telehealth.  The report was completed in October 2009. The main focus of the report was on the use of videoconferencing for clinical purposes in mental health services.

As part of the review a number of approaches were used to involve key stakeholders:

• Personal networking with a range of clinicians across the NHS
• A personal invitation to participate in the review was delivered at the Autumn meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• A message about the review was posted on the Royal College of Psychiatrists website
• Via the e-mail list of the Royal College an invitation was sent to Psychiatrists to take part in a survey about their experience of using videoconferencing.  (Unfortunately a similar attempt to make contact with the Clinical Psychologists in Scotland was unsuccessful.)

The report recommends that further stakeholder engagement should take place and that this could happen in the setting of a national conference.  A list of key stakeholders is contained within the report which can be used to plan such an event.

As the SCT move to NHS24, stakeholder engagement will play a key role in the development of mental health services across NHS Scotland.

For the full document please select the link to the right.