David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Messages for mental health
BY JENNA HAND, The Canberra Times
9/11/2008
AN INNOVATIVE program is using mobile phones to help improve adolescent mental health.
Mobiletype, or Mobile Tracking of Young People's Experiences, asks teens to SMS details of their mood and activities to their doctor as a form of self-monitoring and improving the delivery of mental health services.
Chief investigator on the project, Sophie Reid, discussed the results of a recent pilot study at the Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference in Melbourne on Friday.
''[When] a young person goes in to see their doctor, the doctor has on average eight minutes to spend with their patients and that's not really long enough to get a good idea of a young person's mental health functioning or their drug and alcohol use,'' Dr Reid said.
Mobiletype enables doctors to collect information about their patients between visits so as to better address their needs.
The program is designed for 14- to 25-year-olds and can be downloaded on to an ordinary mobile. It starts up four times a day and asks the user up to 30 questions relating to their mood, diet, activities, alcohol and drug use and sleep patterns.
The information is then sent in SMS form to the young person's doctor.
Dr Reid said a pilot clinical study comprising 47 young people and their eight doctors showed positive results.
''We found the young people were really candid in their reports. We thought the program accurately measured their moods and experiences.
''Young people were telling us that it gave them greater insight into the way in which they were feeling and showed them they were sometimes over-reacting to things or doing things that weren't helpful, or that they should talk to someone.''
Dr Reid said doctors also found the program useful as it allowed them to more quickly and accurately address the needs of their young patients.
''What we found was that 75 per cent of kids felt their doctor understood them better and 88 per cent of doctors reported they understood their patient better.''
The project is bring run out of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.
Studies have so far taken place in Melbourne and Bendigo, but researchers hope mobiletype will eventually be available nationally free of charge.
BY JENNA HAND, The Canberra Times
9/11/2008
AN INNOVATIVE program is using mobile phones to help improve adolescent mental health.
Mobiletype, or Mobile Tracking of Young People's Experiences, asks teens to SMS details of their mood and activities to their doctor as a form of self-monitoring and improving the delivery of mental health services.
Chief investigator on the project, Sophie Reid, discussed the results of a recent pilot study at the Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference in Melbourne on Friday.
''[When] a young person goes in to see their doctor, the doctor has on average eight minutes to spend with their patients and that's not really long enough to get a good idea of a young person's mental health functioning or their drug and alcohol use,'' Dr Reid said.
Mobiletype enables doctors to collect information about their patients between visits so as to better address their needs.
The program is designed for 14- to 25-year-olds and can be downloaded on to an ordinary mobile. It starts up four times a day and asks the user up to 30 questions relating to their mood, diet, activities, alcohol and drug use and sleep patterns.
The information is then sent in SMS form to the young person's doctor.
Dr Reid said a pilot clinical study comprising 47 young people and their eight doctors showed positive results.
''We found the young people were really candid in their reports. We thought the program accurately measured their moods and experiences.
''Young people were telling us that it gave them greater insight into the way in which they were feeling and showed them they were sometimes over-reacting to things or doing things that weren't helpful, or that they should talk to someone.''
Dr Reid said doctors also found the program useful as it allowed them to more quickly and accurately address the needs of their young patients.
''What we found was that 75 per cent of kids felt their doctor understood them better and 88 per cent of doctors reported they understood their patient better.''
The project is bring run out of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.
Studies have so far taken place in Melbourne and Bendigo, but researchers hope mobiletype will eventually be available nationally free of charge.
