Digital Health Supports for Mental Health and Addictions

Our team at the eHealth Centre of Excellence is here to assist the primary care clinicians in your OHT with the adoption and integration of digital health tools that can support them to provide informed, integrated care to their mental health & addictions patient population.

Our team offers a number of decision support tools that can be integrated directly into the clinician's EMR that are based on current best practices related to mental health and addictions.

Our Depression and Anxiety custom form supports clinicians in the screening and management of mental health. The form allows clinicians to gather, document and reference mental health metrics more efficiently at the point of care. For those clinics that utilize tablets (see section below), this tool is compatible with the OCEAN platform.

Figure 1: Screenshot capturing main concerns and treatment goals

Figure 2: Screenshot capturing current treatment

Figure 3: Screenshot capturing assessment, coding conditions, plan, investigation and follow up method

There is also an EMR decision support tool to assist clinicians with appropriate opioid management.

COMING IN SPRING 2023 from the Evidence2Practice Ontario program: A new EMR-integrated tool for Major Depression in adults and Anxiety Disorders in adults will be available for OSCAR Pro and Accuro QHR, with a version for Telus PS Suite coming later in 2023.

The eHealth Centre of Excellence has conducted research that shows that patient tablets or eForms can support efficient screening, assessment and information management of patient populations.

Information submitted by the patient is uploaded directly into the clinician's EMR and while tablets and eForms can be used for many purposes, the most prevalent use of tablets is for mental health assessments.

As our survey results indicate, mental health assessments facilitate more honest responses from patients who may not be comfortable discussing details about their mental health in a face-to-face interaction.

For the primary care clinician, the assessments support a more comprehensive picture of the patient’s mental health condition, treatment goals, and potential risk for suicide – thereby ensuring that a safety plan for the patient is created where appropriate.

Other digital health solutions, such as eServices (eConsult/eReferral), Virtual Care, and Online Appointment Booking, can also support patients with needs related to mental health and addictions.

Ontario eServices Program:

eConsult provides quick and secure access to expert advice from specialists, including psychiatrists.

If an in-person appointment is needed, eReferral can facilitate seamless referrals, with information autopopulated from the EMR directly into the referral form. Patients can receive email notifications about the status of their referral, reducing anxiety.

Virtual care can be an efficient and approachable manner of delivering care related to mental health and addictions, enabling patients to access care remotely from a location of their choice through a secure online platform.

With the world becoming more and more digital every day, many patients will feel more comfortable using an Online Appointment Booking service as opposed to calling in to their primary care clinic for support, particularly if they need to disclose information about their mental health in order to book the appointment.