The Use of Telepsychiatry in the Brief Counselling of Non-Psychotic Patients from an Inner-London General Practice

Abstract

Brief counselling of 13 non-psychotic patients was carried out using an interactive television link, in order to assess patient satisfaction with this technique. Informed consent was obtained from all patients before the videoconferencing sessions, which were conducted at 128 kbit/s. Over the four-month study period, 11 men and two women participated in a total of 29 sessions. A total of 28 questionnaires were completed. After the sessions, 93% of patients agreed that they would like to use this medium for communication again, 75% stated that they were able to see everything that they needed to see and 86% agreed that they were able to hear everything they needed to hear. Overall, these findings indicate that patients were happy with the standard of care they received.

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