Clinicians’ use of and attitudes towards technology to provide and support interventions in child and adolescent mental health services

Abstract

Background:Technology can increase child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) capacity by sup-porting and delivering interventions, yet it has not been widely adopted by CAMHS child mental health professionals. Uptake can either be facilitated or obstructed by child mental health professionals’ attitudes, which remain largely unknown.Method:One hundred fifty-four CAMHS child mental health professionals completed a questionnaire about their use of, and attitudes towards, using technology with children and adoles-cents.Results:Child mental health professionals perceived themselves as generally competent at usingtechnology, especially younger child mental health professionals, and perceived it to be helpful in their clinicalwork. A number of benefits of its use were identified such as accessibility, convenience and appeal, and it wasprimarily perceived as a preventative/psychoeducational tool rather than a replacement for face-to-face ther-apy. Older technologies (helplines and websites) were most frequently used, whereas newer technologies(computer games) were rarely used. Child mental health professionals were unsure what resources were avail-able and whether technology is safe, private or reliable.Conclusions:Despite positive attitudes towards tech-nology, newer technologies were rarely used by child mental health professionals. An overall lack of knowledge about resources along with concerns about safety and reliability may account for the slow uptake of technology within CAMHS. These issues need addressing to maximise implementation, perhaps through training or workshops