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Mental health attendances in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic: A telehealth success story?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Giles ,
S. Sreedharan  and
M. Mian
S. Giles*
Affiliation:
Melbourne School Of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
S. Sreedharan
Affiliation:
Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
M. Mian
Affiliation:
Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the delivery of mental health services globally. Within Australia, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent containment measures have led to reduced face-to-face attendances. To maintain access to mental health consultations, new telehealth services were introduced by the Australian Government in late March 2020.

Objectives

We aimed to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patterns of mental health attendances in Australia using an interrupted time series model.

Methods

To characterise patterns of mental health service utilisation, monthly mental health attendances between January 2016 and June 2020 were extracted from the Medicare database, stratified by clinician type: general practitioner (GP), psychiatrist, and allied health. We used triple exponential smoothing to model attendances between January 2017 and December 2019. Observed and predicted attendances between January and June 2020 were compared with 95% confidence (p<0.05).

Results

Our models showed decreased mental health attendances in March and April, consistent with all healthcare services during this time. While uptake of telehealth was significant, it only partially covered the reduction in mental health attendances.

Conclusions

Our modelling highlights the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health services in Australia, with telehealth only partially compensating for the reduction in face-to-face attendances. These results suggest that telehealth services may not be suitable for all individuals (e.g. those without reliable internet access). Given that telehealth will likely remain a feature of mental health service provision, outreach and face-to-face services should be considered for vulnerable groups

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

COVID-19telehealthmental health
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S698
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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