Dan Robotham|Safarina Satkunanathan|Lisa Doughty|Til Wykes
Do We Still Have a Digital Divide in Mental Health? A Five-Year Survey Follow-up
King's College London|King's College London|King's College London|King's College London
nearly everyone society uses internet one form another internet heralded efficient way providing mental health treatments services however people still excluded using internetenabled technology lack resources skills confidencefive years ago showed people severe mental illness risk digital exclusion especially middleaged patients psychosis andor people black minority ethnic groups psychosis understanding breadth potential digital exclusion vital implementation digital health services aim study understand context digital exclusion people experience mental illnesswe conducted survey involving people primary diagnosis psychosis depression london united kingdom total 241 participants recruited 121 psychosis 120 depression majority surveys collected facetoface psychosis n109 depression n71 participants answered questions regarding familiarity access use motivation confidence internetenabled technologies ie computers mobile phones variables predicting digital exclusion identified regression analyses results compared survey conducted 2011digital exclusion declined since 2011 online survey collection introduced biases sample masking likely excluded 183 20109 people psychosis sample digitally excluded compared 30 2893 2011 2138 p04 people psychosis less confidence using internet people depression 2174 p004 99 24241 participants total sample digitally excluded majority people psychosis n20 psychosis digitally excluded significantly older included peers t3033 p002 used services longer t9725 p02 younger people likely use mobile phones digitally excluded participants cited lack knowledge barrier digital inclusion wanted use internet via computers rather mobile phonesdigital exclusion lower remain excluded facilitating inclusion among population means helping develop skills confidence using technology providing access providing mobile phones without basic information technology training may counterproductive excluded people may excluded mobile technology evidencebased digital inclusion strategy needed within national health service help digitally excluded populations access internetenabled services