How Can Digital HealthCare Help Your Kids Through This Pandemic?

For those of you who know me well you’ll know I’m an Auntie to two very special small humans who are 4 and soon to be 7 respectively. I am besotted and completely in love with them. COVID-19 has impacted both significantly over the past couple of months especially and it’s been really hard on these little people who have no context from which to measure what’s going on. It’s even more difficult as a parent I’m sure to watch the impact this pandemic is having on your child or children. What motivated me to write this was not only hearing the concern in my sister and brother in law’s voices but reading the plethora of truly shocking stories from doctors and nurses about what they’re seeing in wards and A&E across our country.

For the past year, kids have been told they have to stay indoors, not go to school, be taught by parents, not even meet for team sports. What makes kids, kids is their ability to be free, to explore, to play, to run around the forest, playground, to interact with other kids. Their whole worlds have been turned upside down and inside out. If a schoolfriend or teacher tests COVID-19 positive, nursery is shut down and people talking about people around them dying. No wonder anxiety, depression and other mental health issues are sadly seeing a huge increase in children across the board.

In January, 2021, WHO member states stressed the importance of integrating mental health into response and preparedness plans for public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. To meet these aims, the WHO Executive Board urged member states to develop and strengthen services for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) by promoting equitable access to remote health services during the pandemic and beyond, and to study the impact of the pandemic on mental health.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore's Remarks at the UNICEF Executive Board also make for grim reading:

"In particular, the pandemic has upended the lives of children.

"1.6 billion were shut out of school — often without internet access at home.

"Two billion faced disruptions in their countries’ violence prevention and response services.

"Food insecurity and malnutrition have spiked — with an additional 132 million people poised to go hungry this year, including 44 million children.

COVID-19 worsens mental health this is an incontrovertible fact. There can be no excuse or delay in stepping up to prevent a worsening and chronic catastrophe across the nation. There is no health without mental health, therefore recovery from the pandemic needs to factor in mental health and psychosocial interventions. So, on a stormy March day in 2021, I wanted to consider can digital tools provide some well-needed support for people suffering across the country with real needs for mental support and care. And what are the barriers to adoption?

What Services Can Be Delivered Via Digital/Remote Methods?

Videoconferencing, online forums, smartphone apps, text messaging, and e-mails have all been shown to be effective ways of delivering treatment. These new ways of reaching out to people suffering depression, anxiety, and PTSD, can really help patients 'in real time' and ensure that diagnosis is expedited.

I’ve discovered that the NHS has developed an app library to try and help people identify apps that are trustworthy, safe to use and meet certain standards as well as help you curate the best available on the market; there are currently 20 mental health apps listed on the library. In order to be included, apps are assessed for:

·     Any available evidence to prove impact

·     Clinical safety

·     Data protection and security

·     Usability, acceptability, interoperability; and technical stability.

What’s Preventing Widespread Adoption of Digital Apps By Users?

Ensuring that clinicians, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals across the country understand what resources are available seems to be a major need as anecdotally there appears to be a gap in knowledge and general education about what is available, what works, what can they leverage for their patients.

Further, with data breach stories hitting the headlines on a regular basis over the past few years, many potential users could be concerned about the privacy, security, safety, reliability and risk associated with digital mental health tools.

Clearly, there is a huge education piece to be done at a local, regional and national level. I look forward to seeing the progress that is made by government bodies as well as private companies this year and beyond to support our children and their parents. In the words of William Beveridge, whose work formed the foundation of the UK's welfare state: “A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.” A message from an analogue past that the digital future would do well to heed.