AAC - Quantitative investigation of service user's experience; Modified acute psychiatric assessment

COVID-19 Research Area(s): Healthcare Delivery & Policy, Mental Health & Wellbeing

The proposed project is a repeated-measure online survey that will contribute much-needed knowledge regarding the effects of acute-care assessments, in-person and via telepsychiatry. Information regarding how patients experience the technological and human aspects of the assessment and how such experiences predict the outcome will be gathered. Moreover, the study will investigate how COVID-19 has affected mental health and social needs among the diverse individuals who use these services. This study will help us understand the effectiveness of acute care in-person and telepsychiatry in the context of the pandemic response and, by elucidating relevant process and moderating variables, will inform efforts to enhance the delivery of acute/urgent in-person and telepsychiatry and better respond to individual patient needs and sensitivities. Taken together, this will allow for optimized responsiveness throughout the COVID-19 pandemic--and into the future of telepsychiatry service delivery, which is expanding at an extraordinarily rapid pace and with worldwide reach.
 
We propose a repeated measure online survey in which patients utilizing acute/urgent psychiatry assessment at the Access and Assessment Center--now offered both as in-person or telepsychiatry assessment following users preferences--will be followed from baseline (T1) through post-encounter (T2) and follow-up at two (T3) and 8 weeks (T4) post-encounter.