Providing digital mental health support and guidance across Colombia: An observational study

Abstract

Objective: Colombia's mental health system is plagued by significant shortages in services and health professionals. Digital health technologies enable access to information and care, overcoming barriers related to systemic limitations, geographic location, cost and stigma. This paper aims to characterise the sample of Colombians who sought telecounselling and support through Mentes Colectivas, a web-based mental health counselling platform. Methods: Participants provided basic demographics and completed the Kessler 6 to track psychological distress. Counsellors collected information about participants' level of functional impairment, presenting problems, mental health warning signs and session attendance. Descriptive statistics were used to characterise the sample. A range of inferential statistics were used to analyse group differences based on age and session, explore associations within clinical presentations, examine predictors of session attendance and analyse clinical differences between episodes of care. Results: A total of 6442 participants (mean age = 33.6 years; 78.5% female) attended an initial session, with 35.7% returning for at least one follow-up session. Participants on average reported moderate levels of psychological distress, with young people reporting significantly higher distress relative to adults and older adults. Symptoms of anxiety and depression and sleep disturbances were most common. Conclusions: This research confirms the feasibility of Mentes Colectivas to promote help-seeking and support self-management of mental health across the lifespan in Colombia. Digital health technologies have the potential to play a vital role in increasing equity of access to care for the Colombian population, improving mental health and functioning as well as potentially strengthening the health of families and communities.

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