The Computerization of Behavioral Healthcare offers comprehensive advice and practical guidelines on computerization that will fundamentally change the clinical practice, management, and communications of behavioral healthcare. This essential resource is written in easy-to-understand language by experts in the field of clinical practice, healthcare administration, technological change, and public policy. In nontechnical terms, the authors demonstrate how computers and networked, interactive information systems help to contain costs, measure and improve clinical outcomes, and make any behavioral healthcare organization or practice more competitive in the marketplace.
Informatics has the potential to transform the world of behavioral practitioners to enable them to assist people more easily. This book focuses on informatics-related topics that all disciplines connected to the behavioral health will find very useful for their day-to-day practice. This book provides an overview of the state of the art in behavioral health care informatics, addresses the challenges on the horizon, such as organizational issues, human-centered issues, educating healthcare executives about technology issues, educating clinicians about behavioral informatics systems, and consumer issues.
This practical book describes computer programs designed specifically for mental health clinicians and their work. It examines a variety of computer resources and some of the latest developments in the field. Computer Applications in Mental Health provides examples of computer programs that have proved helpful in private practice and institutional treatment settings. Among the programs discussed in the book are those that have succeeded or failed within the large Veterans Administration computer system; a system designed to help choose the best reinforcers to use with patients in a behavioral program; a computerized self-administered screening battery in use in community health center settings; patient education programs useful in caring for the chronic mentally ill; and a reminder system for helping the hospital-based clinician meet paperwork deadlines. Encouraging mental health professionals to investigate the types of computer technology available to them, this book also stimulates further development and sharing of computer software. To enable readers to seek out more information on certain systems and programs, this book lists many computer resources. Several of the software packages evaluated are available on computerized bulletin board systems at no cost beyond that of a long distance phone call. Although Computer Applications in Mental Health is primarily for mental health clinicians, administrators and computer programmers within mental health settings can also find useful information in this book.
Increasingly more computer applications are becoming available to assist mental health clinicians and administrators in patient evaluation and treatment and mental health management, education, and research. Topics covered include: automated assessment procedures; MR-E (The Mental Retardation Expert); computerized assessment system for psychotherapy evaluation and research; computer assisted therapy of stress related conditions; computerized patient evaluation in a clinical setting; computerized treatment planning; the VA national mental health database; networks; managed care; DSM-IV diagnosis; quality management; cost control; knowledge coupling; telemedicine; the clinical library assistant; and monitoring independent service providers.
The purpose of the Mental Health Practice in a Digital World: A Clinicians Guide book is to prepare clinicians to understand, critically evaluate, and embrace well-designed and validated technologies that have the potential of transforming the access, affordability, and accountability of mental healthcare. The reader will become aware of the practical applications of technology in mental health as well as research supporting information technology tools, policy debates. Each chapter contains either examples or scenarios that are relevant to the current practice of mental health care. Policy makers, application developers, scientists, and executives that have lead or supported the use of technologies in real world practice are chapter authors. The goal for this book is to be the key resource for current and future mental health clinicians in the U.S. and around the world to become familiar with technology innovations and how they impact and improve clinical practice.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of research focused on using technology in healthcare, including web- and mobile- health assessment and intervention tools, as well as smartphone sensors and smart environments for monitoring and promoting health behavior. This work has shown that technology-based therapeutic tools offer considerable promise for monitoring and responding to individuals' health behavior in real-time. They may also function as important "clinician-extenders" or stand-alone tools, may be cost-effective and may offer countless opportunities for tailoring behavioral monitoring and intervention delivery in a manner that is optimally responsive to each individual's profile and health behavior trajectory over time. Additionally, informational and communication technologies may be used in the context of decision support tools to help individuals better understand and access treatment. Technology may enable entirely new models of healthcare both within and outside of formal systems of care and thus offers the opportunity to revolutionize healthcare delivery. This edited book defines the state of scientific research related to the development, experimental evaluation, and effective dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools targeting behavioral health. Behavioral Healthcare and Technology provides an overview of current evidence-based approaches to leverage technology to promote behavioral health, including management of substance use, mental health, diet/exercise, medication adherence, as well as chronic disease self-management. Additionally, the book defines the state of implementation research examining models for deploying technology-based behavioral healthcare systems and integrating them into various care settings to increase the quality and reach of evidence-based behavioral healthcare while reducing costs.
