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Increasing access to digital mental health treatments

group photo of 2019 Banbury mental health meeting participants
Participants in the Banbury Center’s “Bridging the Research-to-Practice Chasm in Digital Mental Health” meeting on October 8, 2019.
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Participants in the Banbury Center’s “Bridging the Research-to-Practice Chasm in Digital Mental Health” meeting have published their recommendations for digital mental health treatments (DMHTs). The article, entitled “Banbury Forum Consensus Statement on the Path Forward for Digital Mental Health Treatment” was published in the journal Psychiatric Services.

This paper is the product of two Banbury Forum meetings, which included participants from healthcare organizations, insurance companies, employers, patients, researchers, policymakers, health economists, and DMHT companies.

DMHTs are services that provide mental health management through the use of smartphone and web applications. The participants of these forums evaluated evidence on the effectiveness of DMHTs, identified the challenges to their sustainability, and investigated the factors for successful implementation. Their recommendations are:

  • guided DMHTs should be offered to all patients experiencing common mental disorders
  • DMHT products and services should be reimbursable by insurance carriers to support integration into the U.S. healthcare landscape
  • a framework should be developed to support decision-makers in evaluating DMHTs.

“We were thrilled to convene this meeting at Banbury, and even more pleased that the participants were able to translate their work into this publication, sharing practical recommendations for implementing digital mental health tools,” said Rebecca Leshan, executive director of the Banbury Center. “This massive wave of mental health needs during the pandemic, combined with social distancing, really benefited from remote health options and I hope this paper can guide more permanent integration of these tools into U.S. healthcare.”


Citation

Mohr, D.C., et al., “Banbury Forum Consensus Statement on the Path Forward for Digital Mental Health Treatment”, Psychiatric Services, January 20, 2021, DOI: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000561

Written by: Sara Roncero-Menendez, Media Strategist | publicaffairs@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455

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