van Rooij Floor B, Weeland Joyce, Thonies Carlo
Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2023 May;148:106874. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106874. Epub 2023 Feb 14.
Measures aimed at preventing the COVID-19 virus from spreading restricted all aspects of public life, including possibilities for meeting in-person. Youth care professionals were forced to turn to telehealth tools, such as video calling and e-health methods, to be able to continue support and treatment of children, adolescents, caregivers, and families. This study consists of two qualitative interview studies on the experiences with and transition to telehealth during COVID-19: (1) interviews with youth care professionals ( = 20), and (2) interviews with adolescents who used mental health care support ( = 14). We specifically asked participants about five themes which were selected based on pre-COVID literature on telehealth: (1) tools (i.e., which programs are being used), (2) privacy, (3) methods (i.e., what was the same and what was different compared to in-person sessions), (4) relationship/therapeutic alliance, and (5) effectiveness (i.e., what was their impression of effectiveness of telehealth). The majority of professionals reported that they had very little to no experience with telehealth prior to the pandemic. Both professionals and adolescent clients mentioned benefits and limitations of telehealth. On several themes professionals and adolescent clients mentioned similar barriers in the transition to telehealth during COVID such as limitations of the available hard- and software (theme 1: tools); forced changes in the content and methods of the sessions (theme 3: methods); and difficulties with non-verbal communication (theme 4: alliance). However, whereas most professionals expressed the intention to keep using several aspects of telehealth after restrictions due to COVID are lifted, most adolescent clients expressed they see telehealth as a temporary solution and prefer meeting professionals in person. Their experiences and the barriers and enabling aspects they mentioned may provide important insights in the acceptability and usability of telehealth for youth care organizations, youth care professionals, researchers and higher educational training programs.
旨在防止新冠病毒传播的措施限制了公共生活的方方面面，包括面对面会面的可能性。青少年护理专业人员被迫转向远程医疗工具，如视频通话和电子健康方法，以便能够继续为儿童、青少年、照顾者和家庭提供支持与治疗。本研究包括两项关于新冠疫情期间远程医疗体验及向其过渡的定性访谈研究：（1）对青少年护理专业人员的访谈（n = 20），以及（2）对使用心理健康护理支持的青少年的访谈（n = 14）。我们专门向参与者询问了基于疫情前远程医疗文献选定的五个主题：（1）工具（即正在使用哪些程序），（2）隐私，（3）方法（即与面对面问诊相比有哪些相同和不同之处），（4）关系/治疗联盟，以及（5）有效性（即他们对远程医疗有效性的印象）。大多数专业人员报告称，在疫情之前他们对远程医疗几乎没有或完全没有经验。专业人员和青少年客户都提到了远程医疗的益处和局限性。在几个主题上，专业人员和青少年客户提到了在新冠疫情期间向远程医疗过渡时的类似障碍，例如可用硬件和软件的局限性（主题1：工具）；问诊内容和方法的被迫改变（主题3：方法）；以及非言语沟通方面的困难（主题4：联盟）。然而，虽然大多数专业人员表示打算在因新冠疫情实施的限制解除后继续使用远程医疗的几个方面，但大多数青少年客户表示他们将远程医疗视为一种临时解决方案，更喜欢与专业人员面对面会面。他们的经历以及所提到的障碍和促成因素可能为青少年护理组织、青少年护理专业人员、研究人员和高等教育培训项目对远程医疗的可接受性和可用性提供重要见解。
