Disaster psychiatry in Asia: The potential of smartphones, mobile, and connected technologies

The Usefulness of Brief Telephonic Intervention After a Nuclear Crisis: Long-Term Community-Based Support for Fukushima Evacuees

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident in 2011 produced over 100000 evacuees. In order to deal with an increased need of mental health care, brief, transdiagnostic Telephonic Interventions (TI) have been provided for those at risk of different mental health problems identified based on results of the Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey (MHLS). This study aimed to examine usefulness of TI with focusing on evacuees' subjective estimation assessed in individual follow-up interviews. The sample comprised 484 persons who had been evacuated from 13 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture to 8 safer regions in and out of Fukushima. We conducted semi-structured interviews for participants receiving TI (intervention group) and those not receiving TI despite being identified as high risk (non-intervention group). The intervention group was older, had a higher proportion of self-reported mental illness, and higher unemployment compared with the non-intervention group. The satisfaction proportion of those who underwent TI was as high as 74.6%. Satisfaction was significantly associated with advance knowledge of TI availability (OR = 3.00, 95% CI: 1.59-5.64), and advice on health-related practices (OR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.12-4.13). Thus, TI is considered to be feasible and useful for public health management practices in major disasters.

Review of Use and Integration of Mobile Apps Into Psychiatric Treatments

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Mental health practitioners should understand the features of current, publicly available apps; the features of novel, research apps; and issues behind the integration of mobile apps and digital health services into clinical workflows.

RECENT FINDINGS

The review is based on a research literature and the authors' clinical and healthcare administration experiences. Articles searched-on telepsychiatry, telemental health, mobile mental health, informatics, cellular phone, ambulatory monitoring, telemetry, and algorithms-were restricted to 2016 and 2017. Technologies are used in a variety of clinical settings, including patients with varying mental illness severity, social supports, and technological literacy. Good practices for evaluating apps, understanding user needs, and training and educating users can increase success rates. Ethics and risk management should be considered. Mobile apps are versatile. Integrating apps into psychiatric treatment requires addressing both patient and clinical workflows, design and usability principles, accessibility, social concerns, and digital health literacy.