Exploring the Impact of Education Strategies on Individuals' Attitude Towards Telemental Health Service: Findings from a Survey Experiment Study

While COVID-19 has caused significant mental health consequences, telemental health services have the potential to mitigate this problem. But due to the sensitive nature of mental health issues, such services are seriously underutilized. Based on an integrated variance-process theoretical framework, this study examines the impact of applying different education strategies on individuals' attitude toward telemental health and subsequently their intention to adopt telemental health. Two different education videos on telemental health (peer- or professional-narrated) were developed based on social identity theory. A survey experiment study was conducted at a major historically black university, with 282 student participants randomly assigned to the two education videos. Individual perceptions of the telemental health service (usefulness, ease of use, subjective norms, relative advantage, trust, and stigma) and their attitude and usage intention data were collected. The results show that ease of use, subjective norms, trust, relative advantage, and stigma significantly influence individuals' attitude toward telemental health in the peer-narrated video group. Only trust and relative advantage were found to be significant factors toward attitude in the professional-narrated video group. This study highlights the importance of designing education strategies and builds a theoretical foundation for understanding the nuanced differences in individuals' responsiveness to different educational materials.

Investigating the Impact of Covid-19 on Telepsychiatry Use Across Sex and Race: A Study of North Carolina Emergency Departments

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and the intervention measures have increased mental health problems among Americans. Telepsychiatry provides a safe and efficient way to serve mental health patients in emergency departments (EDs). The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on telepsychiatry consultations in North Carolina (NC) and analyze the differences across sex and race. Methods: This longitudinal observational study used data from the NC Statewide Telepsychiatry Program to examine temporal changes in ED telepsychiatry consultations from January 2019 to March 2021 (117 weeks), including 4,739 telepsychiatry consultations conducted by 27 hospitals in 24 counties in NC during the period. The outcome measures were telepsychiatry consultation counts. Weekly ED telepsychiatry consultation counts were calculated overall and stratified by sex and race. Results: The overall weekly ED telepsychiatry consultation counts were decreasing before the national lockdown but started increase after the lockdown. Moreover, the counts of telepsychiatry consultations for white patients had a stronger increasing trend than that for black patients. Comparing telepsychiatry counts during the lockdown period (March and April) in 2020 and the same period in 2019, male patients had higher counts while female patients had lower counts, and white patients had higher counts while black patients had lower counts. Discussion: It seems that the COVID-19 crisis has led to a heightening demand for telepsychiatry consultations in NC, and there is a possible race disparity in these demands between black and white mental health patients. These findings underscore the need to further develop telepsychiatry services and enhance access to black patients.