Telemedicine & eHealth

Biography

Biography: Nadeem Gire

Abstract

There has been a vast amount of research in the field of psychological interventions primarily in the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for a range of severe mental health disorders. Technological advances in healthcare have shown promise when delivering interventions for mental health problems such as psychosis. The aim of the current project is to develop a mobile phone intervention for people with psychosis and to conduct a feasibility study of the TechCare App. The TechCare App will assess participant’s symptoms and respond with a personalized guided self¬-help based psychological intervention with the aim of reducing participant’s symptoms. The project will recruit 16 service users and 8¬-10 health professionals and will be conducted at the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust Early Intervention Service. In phase one of the study, we will invite people to discuss their experience of psychosis and give their opinions on the existing evidence based treatment (CBT) and how the mobile app can be developed to deliver the intervention in real-time. In phase two, we will complete a test run with a small number of participants (n=4) to refine the mobile intervention (TechCare). Finally, in phase three of the study the TechCare App will be examined in a feasibility study with a total of 12 participants. Hollis et al has suggested a need for the rapid increase in the evidence base for the clinical effectiveness of digital technologies with mHealth research being potentially helpful in addressing the demand on mental health services globally.