Familiarity with and intentions to use Internet-delivered mental health treatments among older rural adults

Tonelle E. Handley · David A. Perkins · FRANCES J. KAY‐LAMBKIN · Terry J. Lewin · Brian J. Kelly

29 citations0/0 files storedAging & Mental Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Digital Mental Health Interventions Mental Health Treatment and Access Technology Use by Older Adults

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Older adults are the fastest growing age group in Australia, necessitating an increase in appropriate mental health services in the coming years. While Internet-delivered mental health treatments have been established as acceptable and efficacious among younger samples, little research has explored whether they would be similarly useful in older populations. METHODS: The participants were part of the Australian Rural Mental Health study, which explores mental health and well-being in residents of non-metropolitan New South Wales. A postal survey was used to assess knowledge of and intentions to use Internet-delivered mental health treatments. Demographics, mental health, and frequency of Internet use were also measured. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 950 adults aged 50-93. The sample was largely unfamiliar with Internet mental health services, with 75% reporting that they had never heard of them and a further 20% not knowing any details of what they involved. Intentions to use these services were also low, at 13.5%; however, this increased with level of familiarity. Respondents with higher psychological distress, higher education, and more frequent Internet use were significantly more likely to consider using Internet treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Among older adults, overall awareness of Internet-delivered mental health treatments appears to be limited; however, higher familiarity contributes to higher intentions to use these treatments. Importantly, respondents with higher distress and greater computer literacy were more likely to consider mental health treatments delivered via the Internet. Future research exploring strategies to increase the promotion of these services to older samples may further improve their perceptions and use.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 29 citations exist upstream.

References

1991The theory of planned behavior 2004The Theory of Planned Behaviour 2010Computer Therapy for the Anxiety and Depressive Disorders Is Effective, Acceptable and Practical Health Care: A Meta-Analysis 2007When and how do young people seek professional help for mental health problems?20092007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Methods and Key Findings 1979Year book Australia 2011Kessler Psychological Distress Scale: Normative Data from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2004Barriers to Health Care Access Among the Elderly and Who Perceives Them

Cited by

2022Does internet use promote mental health among middle-aged and older adults in China?2023Changes in Internet use patterns among older adults in England from before to after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic 2021The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise 2018Implementing Trauma-Informed Practice in Juvenile Justice Systems: What can Courts Learn from Child Welfare Interventions?2021

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.