Digital interventions as part of routine addiction care in Sweden: healthcare staff perceptions of what works.

BACKGROUND

Every year about three million people die globally due to harmful alcohol use. The treatment gap remains high: only about 14% of individuals with problematic alcohol use access treatment. The implementation of digital interventions, addressing problematic alcohol use, into healthcare can be one way of reducing the treatment gap. However, little is known about how healthcare staff perceive the integration of digital interventions in routine addiction care. The aim of the study was to identify and describe healthcare staff's experiences of perceived benefits of digital interventions for patients with alcohol use disorders (AUD), introduced in recent years within routine specialized addiction care in Sweden. The aim was further to explore how the use of such interventions in this setting could be further developed.

METHODS

This study was conducted as an exploratory qualitative interview study with 16 informants from addiction care staff in Stockholm, Sweden. The informants came from three different groups: clinical managers, staff referring outpatients to digital interventions from within addiction care, and therapists from an e-support unit. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed with thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Three themes illustrated the benefits of digital interventions in routine addiction care, and future development areas. The theme An easy way in reflected the importance of easy access to addiction care where care would be flexible and available to everyone. Meeting individual patient needs raised the question of how to adapt treatment formats to the patients' individual needs. Smoothly interlocking organizational gears highlighted the need for structure and cooperation between digital care and in-person care. Each theme included three additional subthemes.

CONCLUSIONS

The study identifies key factors for successfully integrating digital interventions in addiction care, highlighting the importance of staff engagement, structured workflows, training, and ongoing evaluation using a sociological framework.