Psychosis literacy in a Canadian health region: results from a general population sample.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the public's level of mental health literacy for psychosis. METHOD: A cross-sectional telephone survey using a random phone number selection procedure was conducted to identify a sample of 1685 participants comprised of youth at risk (aged 15 to 39 [corrected] years) and parents of youth at risk of psychosis (aged 35 to 59 years). The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry regrets the error and any inconvenience it might have caused. [corrected]. Participants were asked about their awareness of symptoms and causes of schizophrenia and psychosis, treatment options, and preferred channels for obtaining information about health and mental health. RESULTS: The response rate was 73%. There was a high reported knowledge of the term schizophrenia (76%), but a low reported knowledge of the term psychosis (23%). Ninety-one per cent of participants agreed that medications can control symptoms of schizophrenia. Significant barriers to getting help included not knowing the early signs of psychosis, concerns about being labelled mentally ill or psychotic, and not knowing where to go for help. Preferred communication elements to reach at-risk youth and their families were pamphlets at family physicians' and school counsellors' offices, posters on buses, television and radio advertisements, and information on websites. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas there is good knowledge about recognition and treatment of schizophrenia, there is less awareness of the broader concept of psychosis. Barriers to accessing care included recognition of early signs of psychosis and stigma. Public education programs aimed at promoting earlier intervention would need to address information about both psychosis and stigma.

Development of an early psychosis public education program using the PRECEDE PROCEED model.

Early diagnosis and treatment are recognized strategies to reduce the long-term functional effects of chronic diseases, including psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Treatment may be delayed if youth, young adults and parents are not aware of the early signs and symptoms of psychosis, the need for early diagnosis and treatment and where and how to get help. This article describes the use of the PRECEDE component of PRECEDE-PROCEED model as a conceptual framework in the development of an early psychosis public education program's objectives designed to meet the learning needs of the target population (youth and young adults ages 15-30 years and their parents). The PRECEDE framework provided a strong conceptual model in the program's planning.

Framework for Canadian telehealth guidelines: summary of the environmental scan.

A Canadian project (the National Initiative for Telehealth Guidelines) was established to develop telehealth guidelines that would be used by health professionals, by telehealth providers as benchmarks for standards of service and by accrediting agencies for accreditation criteria. An environmental scan was conducted, which focused on organizational, human resource, clinical and technological issues. A literature review, a stakeholder survey (245 mail-outs, 84 complete responses) and 48 key informant interviews were conducted. A framework of guidelines was developed and published as a preliminary step towards pan-Canadian policies. Interim recommendations were that organizations and jurisdictions might consider formal agreements to specify: (1) organizational interoperability; (2) technical interoperability; (3) personnel requirements; (4) quality and continuity-of-care responsibilities; (5) telehealth services; (6) remuneration; and (7) quality assurance processes. An additional recommendation was that flexible mechanisms were needed to ensure that accreditation criteria will be realistic and achievable in the context of rapid changes in technology, service integration and delivery, as well as in the context of operating telehealth services in remote or underserved areas.

Access and authorisation in a Glocal e-Health Policy context.

Challenges to the development of appropriate yet adaptable policy and tools for security of the individual patient electronic health record (EHR) are proving to be significant. Compounding this is the unique capability of e-health to transgress all existing geo-political and other barriers. Initiatives to develop and advance policy, standards, and tools in relation to EHR access control and authorisation management must address this capability. Currently policy development initiatives take place largely in an isolated manner. This jeopardises the potential of e-health because decisions made in one jurisdiction might hamper, even prevent, an e-health opportunity in another. This paper places access and authorisation issues in an overall policy context through describing current Canadian initiatives. The National Initiative for Telehealth (NIFTE) Guidelines project is developing a framework of national guidelines for telehealth. The Policy and Peer Permission (PPP) project is developing a unique tool that provides persistent protection of data. The new corporate body 'Infoway' is developing a pan-Canadian electronic health record solution. Finally, the Glocal e-Health Policy initiative is developing a tool with which to identify and describe the inter-relationships of e-health issues amongst policy levels, themes, and actors.

Organizational readiness for telemedicine: implications for success and failure.

The use of telemedicine brings about change in health-care organizations and opens up new possibilities for service delivery. The organizational environment is often crucial in determining whether or not telemedicine applications will be successful. To examine the concept of 'organizational readiness for telemedicine' as a factor to explain why telemedicine initiatives succeed or fail, the results were used of interviews with key informants, conducted in two studies: the Alliance for Building Capacity project and the National Initiative for Telehealth guidelines project. The data indicate that organizational readiness for telemedicine is a multifaceted concept that is related to planning and the workplace environment. A greater understanding of the factors within organizational readiness could help to avoid costly implementation errors. 'Readiness' needs to be systematically assessed and is important for long-term success.