E-mental health implementation in inpatient care: Exploring its potential and future challenges

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Technology
• Digital Psychiatry
• Healthcare Innovation

Background:

• e-mental health shows effectiveness but lacks large-scale implementation in healthcare organizations.
• Inpatient specialized mental healthcare settings face particular implementation gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing e-mental health implementation in Belgian psychiatric settings.
• To identify barriers and facilitators at organizational, professional, and patient levels.

Main Methods:

• A modular web-based platform (Moodbuster) with a smartphone app was piloted in four Belgian hospitals.
• Professionals and patients used the platform alongside treatment and completed pre/post-implementation questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Low participation rates (10 professionals, 24 patients) due to technical difficulties and inpatient-specific factors.
• Key barriers included lack of structural facilities, patient motivation (severe symptoms), and professional workload/time constraints.
• Professionals recognized e-mental health's value in bridging inpatient to outpatient care transitions.

Conclusions:

• Successful e-mental health implementation in inpatient psychiatric care requires addressing significant organizational, technical, and user-specific barriers.
• Future strategies must overcome these challenges to integrate digital tools effectively into specialized mental healthcare.