Attitudes to the use of videoconferencing in general and specialist psychiatric services

Abstract

Mental health professionals and support staff were invited to complete a questionnaire about their experience of using videoconferencing. Our hypotheses were that mental health professionals in the UK do not have access to videoconferencing and do not believe that videoconferencing is appropriate for their work. Of the 134 people who completed and returned a questionnaire, 78 worked in deaf mental health services and 56 worked in general mental health services. The majority were nurses (n = 33) or psychologists (n = 30). A total of 109 respondents (81%) knew what videoconferencing was, but only 16 respondents (12%) had ever used it. The majority of the 32 respondents who knew the location of their nearest videoconferencing facility said that it could be accessed in less than 30 min. The 16 people who had previously used videoconferencing identified four different benefits of videoconferencing and eight different drawbacks. We conclude that mental health staff did not have adequate knowledge of, or access to, videoconferencing.