Abstract for oral presentation and discussion forum
Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences:
People and Place (ICASS IX)
Umeå, Sweden 8-12 June, 2017
Experiences of using eHealth to improve psychiatry services for children and adolescents in peripheral areas
Catrine Kostenius, Gunvor Gard and Eva Lindgren
Department of Health Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
Kirsi Bykachev, Jussi Karppi, Kirsti Kumpulainen, Marjorita Sormunen, Outi Turunen and Hannele Turunen
University of Eastern Finland, Finland Lucy Thompson and Philip Wilson University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Elin Anne Breivik, Siv Hege Fagerheim and Frank Larsen Norwegian Centre for e-Health Research, Norway
Introduction
The demand for child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) services often exceeds service capacity in sparsely populated rural areas. The lack of appropriate services may be damaging in conditions sensitive to neurodevelopmental maturation processes. Here we present The eHealth Services for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – eCAP project, which is one attempt to solve the problem of providing CAP services in Northern peripheral areas.
Methods
Partners in the eCAP project include Northern Norway and Sweden, Finland and the Scottish Highlands. The project builds upon transnational learning and knowledge exchange between the partner regions and it is financed 2015-2018 by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme 2014-2020.
Aim
The aim of the project is to develop consultation, diagnosis, supervision, treatment and collaboration through modern information technology (IT). The intervention target groups are children and adolescents with mental health issues in remote areas. It also involves their families and professionals in primary and special health care, social care, and education.
Findings
Experiences so far of developing and piloting operational models according to each
region’s needs are shared. The examples include the setup of a booking system, the video conferences for consultation and distant psychiatric treatment, the use of the
Development and Wellbeing Assessment (DAWBA) online in primary health care, and training for multi-professional groups about mental health issues of children.
Contact information: Catrine Kostenius, Professor of Health Science Department of Health Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden catrine.kostenius@ltu.se, +46 920-493288 and +46 70-2000464
