MRFF success supports better mental health for rural Australians
Health economists within the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine will lead a new MRFF-funded project to bridge an equity gap in health service delivery to rural and regional Australians, by investigating successful models of telehealth-delivered mental health care.
Dr Long Le is a Senior Research Fellow with the Monash University Health Economics Group, and will work closely with colleagues from the Monash School of Rural Health, and researchers from the University of Melbourne to undertake the studies.
The project is the first time that cost-effectiveness data will be incorporated into a co-design process to identify the optimal cost effective and sustainable telehealth model of mental health care. With six distinct studies conceptualised across four separate workstreams, the researchers will:
- Explore in-depth the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of people in rural and remote areas who have or have not used the government’s Better Access program telehealth services;
- identify barriers and facilitators to uptake of telehealth mental health services and determine which are the most important in shaping consumer, GP and psychologist behaviour;
- collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders such as consumers, health professionals, and decision-makers to co-design practical, feasible, equitable and sustainable solutions for the challenges identified in the previous steps, and
- evaluate the most likely cost-effective and scalable strategies to improve delivery of Better Access via telehealth for people in rural and remote areas.
“I’m very excited about the co-design aspect of this suite of projects, which enhances consumer and stakeholder involvement, treating them as serious and equal partners in the research,” says Dr Le. By doing this, we are setting up any resultant recommendations and strategies for success, as they are informed by those who will use them”.
“We’ll be following a conceptual framework called ‘Knowledge to Action’, that emphasises successful translation and implementation of evidence into practical solutions. It’ll provide decision-makers should with evidence on the most effective and affordable mental health care models for Australians who have historically struggled to access services.”
Key stakeholders in the project include the National Rural Health Alliance and the Australian Psychological Society.
Research collaborator Professor Darryl Maybery is from the Monash School of Rural Health. He views this as an important opportunity to build on previous work done with his colleagues. “We’ve previously shown that access and reductions in mental illness symptoms can result for rural Australians when they receive psychological services by telemedicine, in particular older adults, men and those who self-refer for services.
“This very important project will make mental health services available to more rural Australians. It will allow care to be accessed from a private and familiar space (the home), reduce delays in seeing clinicians, and ensure that quality services are codesigned by all stakeholders, including service users and clinicians.”
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