Report: How COVID-19 is a Blue Moon Moment for Mental Health Technology


What You Should Know:

– Oxford VR publishes a new position paper ‘The Big Reset: Why COVID-19 presents a blue moon moment for mental health technology.’

– The white paper highlights how the coronavirus crisis has been a greater catalyst for the implementation of telecare in practice, than two decades of many brilliant, but many failed attempts too.

Oxford VR , a provider
of evidence-based automated VR therapy has published a new position paper ‘ The
Big Reset: Why COVID-19 presents a blue moon moment for mental health technology.’
COVID- 19 has put future mental healthcare provision firmly in the spotlight.
Healthcare system s across the world are experiencing huge surges in demand. There are the obvious acute mental- health issues:
anxiety from job losses, business closures; stress from health concerns and
traumatic experiences of bereavement, and depression, fueled by isolation,
loneliness, panic, and fear. But what about the impact on mental healthcare in
the aftermath and, in the long term?

It’s reasonable to anticipate
a rippling effect on future capacity in mental healthcare systems around the
world. The paper highlights how the coronavirus
crisis has been a greater catalyst for the implementation of telecare in
practice, than two decades of many brilliant, but many failed attempts too.
According to Barnaby Perks, Co-founding CEO of Oxford VR “For those individuals
struggling with a mental health illness, this advance cannot
come sooner.” As virtual care becomes the new normal, this paper examines the
challenges and opportunities for disruptive technologies in mental health delivery
to ensure that adoption is sustainable after the immediate aftershocks.

The white paper emphasizes how because acceleration and
adoption of new technologies is happening at an unprecedented pace that the
regulatory system will need to keep pace to ensure it become easier to
navigate, and the approval process for new devices and therapies should become
less time- and resource-intensive and ensure evidence-based solutions.  As
Matt Vogl pointed out “We don’t want it to become the wild west. No rules is
just as bad as too many rules.”

In a matter of days, telecare
connected providers with patients in Europe and the United States. In order to
continue this telemedicine revolution into the new normal, critical new
thinking is required to ensure the right technologies are adopted. In this white
paper Oxford VR gathered views from some of the most respected leaders and
thinkers in healthcare, behavioral health and teletherapy, and share their
perspectives on the critical issues – the challenges ahead, and the
opportunities emerging in the new mental healthcare landscape.

Contributors include Walter...

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