Carelink and Monsenso partner to deliver digitally enabled nationwide mental health services

Carelink and Monsenso partner to deliver digitally enabled nationwide mental health services

Carelink Nærhospital and Monsenso entered into a partnership and expect to deliver the first digitally supported mental health services in January 2024. 

Carelink Group, Denmark’s largest private health and welfare services group, and Monsenso, a leading provider of validated digital mental health solutions, have entered into a groundbreaking partnership that will redefine the way mental health services are delivered for the benefit of patients, healthcare professionals, and the healthcare sector as a whole.

Mental health is a crucial part of our society, and the need for innovative solutions to address challenges in this area has never been bigger. Carelink’s extensive experience in delivering high-quality healthcare services, combined with Monsenso’s advanced digital health solution, has the potential to create lasting value for both the healthcare sector, the work of healthcare professionals, and particularly for patients. The partnership aligns with the Danish government’s initiatives in psychiatry and the recently presented Finance Act for 2024.

Key points in this partnership include:

  1. Highly scalable digitally supported healthcare services: The partnership creates an innovative foundation that integrates traditional mental health services with advanced digital solutions. This comprehensive offering will provide individual users with tools for digital self-help, self-monitoring and effective remote clinician follow-up before, during, and after treatment.
  2. Addressing workforce issues: The shortage of qualified personnel in mental health is a challenge. This partnership aims to alleviate the problem by optimising resources and leveraging technology to expand the reach of healthcare professionals, enabling them to serve a larger number of patients.
  3. Reduced waiting times: Long waiting lists for mental health services are a significant problem nationwide. The collaboration will streamline the process and offer timely assistance through a combination of digital solutions and remote follow-up, ensuring that patients receive the support they need promptly.
  4. Improved patient experience: Patients will experience a more patient-centered and convenient approach to assessment and treatment for mental disorders. The partnership will enhance the patient experience, promote patient involvement, and provide effective follow-up, support, and treatment.
  5. Quality treatment: The combined offering will promote better treatment outcomes, as patients will have the necessary tools and support for digital self-help, self-monitoring, and effective remote follow-up. This is expected to lead to improved quality of life, more efficient processes, and a reduction in relapses.

“We have entered into this partnership to meet the pressure on psychiatry and the healthcare sector today. We aim to create a Digital First but not Digital Only offering, making waiting lists, assessment, and treatment processes more patient-centric. We believe we can achieve this by leveraging the latest clinically validated technologies to effectively follow up on treatment – also at a distance and in patients’ own homes,” says Maria Pico Almsgaard, CEO of Carelink Nærhospital.

“The potential in the partnership to create easily accessible, nationwide offerings is significant. Far too many patients are waiting for treatment and not provided with the effective, digitally supported offerings that they would like. Better assistance for children and young people, as well as digital offerings, is a priority for the government, and that’s why we have also started with digitally supported offerings for children and young people, but with new pathways continuously added,” says Thomas Lethenborg, CEO of Monsenso.

Click the button below for more information about the Monsenso solution.

A smartphone app that can help psychiatrists diagnose mental illness

A smartphone app that can help psychiatrists diagnose mental illness

“A smartphone app that can help psychiatrists diagnose mental illness” –  Peter Hagelund, a Monsenso user, speaks about his experience using the Monsenso mobile health solution to support his treatment, and how it has helped  him improve the communication with his psychiatrist.

Prior to using the Monsenso smartphone app, Peter and his psychiatrist followed the typical therapeutic setting, they would schedule an appointment every two-three weeks, and they would have a conversation to discuss Peter’s previous weeks.  Peter would usually say that he had been doing fine for each appointment, but sometimes he forgot important details that he wanted to discuss.

“It can be pretty tricky to remember, two weeks later [between appointments] how you actually felt that day. With the app it’s really easy to go back and see if your mood has been pretty stable over the last two months, or if you had had some ups and downs over a period,” says Peter Hagelund.

Now, instead of relying on Peter’s memory during the appointment, his psychiatrist can access his data and see how he has been doing, as it happened. He can view how much he has been sleeping, how much he exercises, how much he drinks, how much anxiety he has, and other relevant aspects to his treatment and his disorder.

“My psychiatrist now says things like You say you’ve been doing fine, but I can actually see that you’ve had a few ups and downs. I think the app helps him get a real view of how I have been doing,” says Peter Hagelund.

In his Danish documentary series “Jeg savner min sygdom” (which translates to “I miss my illness”), Peter Hagelund talks about his experience of getting the wrong diagnosis and how finally after six years he got the right diagnosis and treatment. 

In 2014, he was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type 2.

During his whole life, he knew there was something different about him. He always struggled with depression and anxiety, and what eventually turned out to be hypomania. When he was 22, he had his first big episode of depression and began taking antidepressants. However, it took six more years before he was officially diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type 2.

He says that one of the trickiest things about having this diagnosis is that he does not experience the typical manic episode where a person feels over-energetic and nearly psychotic. Instead, he feels hypomanic, which means that he is socially well functioning. He is not psychotic. He just feels really well; the problem with this, was that he didn’t feel the need to inform his psychiatrist the fact that he was feeling too well

His psychiatrist found out that he had Bipolar Disorder was because he couldn’t come out of his depression. At first, he was diagnosed with depression and ADD. But these diagnoses didn’t seem to fit because he still had strong mood swings and a lot of anxiety. When he was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type 2, it actually made sense to him. Suddenly, he could see why he had felt the way he had most of his life.

“I really believe that the Monsenso smartphone app could have helped my psychiatrist give me the right diagnosis at an earlier stage because the app helps me to keep track of my mood and to become more aware of how I feel. With the app, I have to pause and take a moment to think about how I’ve actually been doing before entering my answers. Keeping track of all this information has helped my treatment. My psychiatrist and I can plan better on how to avoid my future depressive or hypomanic episodes because we can clearly identify when I am having mood swings”. says Peter Hagelund.  

In August 2018, his documentary about living with Bipolar Disorder aired on national Danish television and the response was overwhelming. Many people contacted him, to thank him for talking about his illness. He made the documentary so other people who have this illness, do not feel ashamed of it.

“My hope is that in the future people are diagnosed at an earlier stage than I was and I truly believe the Monsenso app is one of the things that can help. I really hope that other psychiatrists and their patients will start using the app,” he added.

Click here to read this story in Danish.

Monsenso will begin clinical trials for anxiety

Monsenso will begin clinical trials for anxiety

Monsenso will begin clinical trials to support the treatment of anxiety disorder in collaboration with The Mental Health Services in the Region of Southern Denmark (MHS).


The Anxiety Monitoring Study

The objective of the study is to implement and validate the Monsenso mHealth solution to support the treatment of anxiety disorders.

The Monsenso mHealth platform uses a double-loop treatment model to connect care providers and individuals. Currently, it is being used to collect patients’ self-rated status and sensor-based behavioural data on a daily basis.

Recent advances in mobile technologies have created more opportunities for assessments and treatments to be available to people in situations where they are most needed. Personal health technologies can collect patients’ self-rated status and sensor-based behavioural data (e.g., physical activity, phone usage, social activity) on a daily basis.

The information gathered this way provides feedback on treatment progress to both care providers and individuals. Moreover, it also supplies ecological momentary interventions (EMI), for instance, by prompting individuals to do assignments depending on the context and patients’ current status.

Regarding anxiety disorders, mobile health solutions can be useful in assisting patients to use skills learned during treatment in real life situations, as well as to monitor and give feedback on progress or lack of progress during therapy. This feedback leads to better outcomes for patients not responding well to treatment.

Pilot study: The feasibility of the solution will be evaluated using a qualitative and quantitative study without a control group involving 30 patients for three months examining usability and usefulness of the solution for both patients and clinicians.

Participants: Anxiety Patients in Routine and Special Care Settings in Southern Denmark.

Expected results: The study will result in the development of a solution based on user needs. The platform will be a feasible, usable and useful intervention.

Implementation: If the results of the feasibility study are promising, the study results will be used to improve the mHealth solution and develop version 2. Afterwards, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to examine outcome related effects of the solution, such as rate of recovery. If the feasibility and outcome of the RCT studies are positive, it is expected that there will be interest in implementing the mHealth solution in routine and specialized care settings around the world.

To read the press release, click here.

The use of mobile health technology to support the treatment of anxiety

The use of mobile health technology to support the treatment of anxiety

Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks) [1].

Anxiety is the primary symptom of several conditions, including:

  • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
  • Panic attacks
  • Phobias
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Social anxiety disorder [2]
  • Symptoms of GAD
  • Restlessness
  • Sense of dread
  • Feeling constantly “on edge”
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Irritability
  • Dizziness
  • Tiredness
  • Fast or irregular heartbeat
  • Muscle aches and tension
  • Trembling or shaking
  • Shortness of breath
  • Headache
  • Insomnia [2]

The two main treatments for anxiety disorders are psychotherapy and medication. It is often beneficial to combine both. It may take some trial and error to discover which treatments work best for an individual.


Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy or psychological counselling, involves working with a therapist to reduce a person’s anxiety symptoms. Sometimes, it can be an effective treatment on its own [3].

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy for anxiety disorders. A short-term treatment, cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on teaching individuals specific skills to return gradually to the situations they avoided due to their anxiety [3].

Applied relaxation focuses on relaxing your muscles in a particular way during situations that usually cause anxiety. The technique needs to be taught by a trained therapist, but involves:

  • Learning to relax one’s muscles
  • Learning to relax one’s muscles quickly and in response to a trigger, such as the word “relax”
  • Relaxing one’s muscles in situations that make a person anxious [2]


Medication

  • Antidepressants – this type of medications influences the activity of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) thought to play a role in anxiety disorders
  • Buspirone – an anti-anxiety medication called buspirone may be used on an ongoing basis. As with most antidepressants, it typically takes up to several weeks to become fully effective
  • Benzodiazepines – this type of medication are used only for relieving acute anxiety on a short-term basis. Because they can be habit-forming, these medications aren’t a good choice if you’ve had problems with alcohol or drug abuse [1]

The Monsenso mHealth solution for behavioural disorders is currently being used to support the treatment of individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder.

Although there isn’t any ongoing research on anxiety, it can definitely be used to support the treatment of anxiety with in conjunction with CBT.

Individuals can obtain an overview of their historic levels of anxiety and try to identify the behavioural patterns that trigger their symptoms. Based on their historical records they can learn to predict situations of risk and take preventive measures to avoid or minimize any adverse reactions. Additionally, the Monsenso smartphone app also provides individuals with customized action plans and a secure communication channel with their clinic when they need it the most.

References:

[1] Anxiety. Mayo Clinic.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/basics/definition/con-20026282

[2] Anxiety. National Institute of Mental Health.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

[3] Anxiety. National Health Service (NHS) UK
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/anxiety/Pages/Introduction.aspx