Home // International Journal On Advances in Life Sciences, volume 8, numbers 3 and 4, 2016 // View article

Good telecare: on accessible mental health care

Authors:
Annemarie van Hout
Ruud Janssen
Marike Hettinga
Jeannette Pols
Dick Willems

Keywords: good care; e-mental health; nursing telecare; ethnography.

Abstract:
Mental health care is increasingly given at a distance, supported by technology. In this article, we focus on whether care, when technology comes in, still counts as good care. Therefore, we looked into a mental health nursing telecare practice for patients that live at home. The telecare team offers 24/7 unplanned webcam contact. We observed and interviewed nurses whilst they were having webcam contact. In our analysis we focused on frictions in care. We found different examples, that relate to an overall dilemma in mental health care: how does the policy of reinforcing self-reliant patients relate to 24/7 care? The dilemma is reinforced through the webcam, as it makes care much more accessible. We used theories on good care, which show how good care is situational and established when enacted. We think professionals should look for complex examples and confer on frictions in order to improve good care. Exchange and discussion between care professionals, derived from their understandings with patients, will lead to applied knowledge, or even better, artisanal knowledge of good care.

Pages: 214 to 221

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2016. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 31, 2016

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2660