Galffy Matyas, Bichler Carina, Mohr Thomas, Egeter Jonas, Neu Leonie, Oberhammer Maria, Högl Birgit, Deisenhammer Eberhard A, Sperner-Unterweger Barbara, Hüfner Katharina
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology, University Hospital of Psychiatry II, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 20;13:853371. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.853371. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit Austria in March 2020. This led to a considerable reduction in outpatient psychiatric therapies. People with mental disorders as well as with newly emerging mental health issues found themselves with very limited treatment options. Within only a few days our hospital set up an online mental health self-help program which went online in its first version on the first day of the lockdown in Austria. The process of this development and implementation process alongside with the user's and usage data for the program are presented here.
A small core team initiated the development of the program on a low-budget basis and using mostly freely available digital resources. The program had to be free of costs for its users and easy to navigate. Each self-help module contains a text description of the topic, a self-rating questionnaire and several psychoeducational 2-5 min videos. These videos explain, e.g., interactions of mental stress and the immune system or the vicious circle of anxiety. Additional videos provide easy to learn techniques like breathing and relaxation exercises.
We illustrate the implementation of this program following the replicating effective program (REP) model. We provide a detailed description of the implementation process starting from a simple website to a smartphone-based application with registered user area and instantaneous reporting of self-rating questionnaire results to users. The described process could be used as a model for the setup of similar programs in a very short time. As an indicator of acceptance, we report 46,100 unique video views and 3,937 completed questionnaires in the first year of use. The most accessed videos were those on anxiety, relaxation and resilience. Analysis of the sociodemographic user data indicate that they were mostly young (< 45 years; 59.7%), females (77.5%) and previously mentally healthy individuals (74.5%). An example of the collected psychometric questionnaire data over time is given.
We show that it is possible to set up an online mental health self-help program and without extensive prior planning, which enabled us to dynamically respond to a new situation. We are now planning on keeping the program active for a longer period of time to supplement and expand traditional treatment settings also outside the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020年3月，新冠疫情袭击奥地利。这导致门诊精神治疗大幅减少。患有精神障碍以及新出现心理健康问题的人们发现自己的治疗选择非常有限。在短短几天内，我们医院设立了一个在线心理健康自助项目，该项目的首个版本在奥地利封锁首日上线。本文介绍了这一项目的开发和实施过程以及用户和使用数据。
一个小型核心团队以低成本启动该项目的开发，主要使用免费的数字资源。该项目必须对用户免费且易于操作。每个自助模块都包含主题的文字描述、自评问卷以及几段2至5分钟的心理教育视频。这些视频解释了例如精神压力与免疫系统的相互作用或焦虑的恶性循环。其他视频提供了诸如呼吸和放松练习等易于学习的技巧。
我们按照复制有效项目（REP）模型展示了该项目的实施情况。我们详细描述了实施过程，从一个简单的网站发展到一个基于智能手机的应用程序，带有注册用户区域，并能向用户即时报告自评问卷结果。所描述的过程可作为在极短时间内设立类似项目的典范。作为接受度指标，我们报告在使用的第一年有46100次独特的视频观看和3937份完成的问卷。访问量最大的视频是关于焦虑、放松和恢复力的。对社会人口统计学用户数据的分析表明，他们大多是年轻人（<45岁；59.7%）、女性（77.5%）以及之前心理健康的个体（74.5%）。给出了随时间收集的心理测量问卷数据的一个示例。
我们表明，无需广泛的前期规划就有可能设立一个在线心理健康自助项目，这使我们能够动态应对新情况。我们现在计划让该项目长期运行，以补充和扩展新冠疫情之外的传统治疗环境。
