{"id":170648,"date":"2023-08-08T13:42:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=170648"},"modified":"2023-08-08T13:42:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:42:01","slug":"virtual-mental-healthcare-assessment-finds-rural-nova-scotians-face-more-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/virtual-mental-healthcare-assessment-finds-rural-nova-scotians-face-more-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual mental healthcare assessment finds rural Nova Scotians\u00a0face more isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia published A Critical Assessment of Virtual Mental Health Care for Rural Nova Scotians<\/a> on August 1. The assessment done by Robin Lauzon, a recent graduate from Acadia University, found that rural Nova Scotians have faced greater isolation since the start of the pandemic.\u00a0Virtual mental healthcare has exacerbated feelings of isolation due to less face-to-face interactions with physicians.<\/p>\n

Many of the physicians interviewed found that patients with an aversion to virtual mental healthcare weren't able to get the care they needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtual care is kind of a broad umbrella term,\u201d Lauzon says.<\/p>\n

Virtual mental health care can be anything from one-to-one therapy, online apps that offer mental health tools that the government of Nova Scotia has introduced and other resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some major benefits in terms of having the opportunity to reach out and receive care from clinicians who may not live in your area,\u201d Lauzon says. \u201cBeing able to reach out to specialists online, not having to drive back and forth to appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virtual care can also provide a more comfortable setting such as an increased anonymity, Lauzon says. This can be a benefit for those who would not have reached out to receive mental health care otherwise.<\/p>\n

But virtual isn\u2019t for everyone. The study done by Lauzon shows that 43 per cent of Nova Scotians live in rural areas compared to the national average of 18 per cent. A large part of this population is elderly and low-income.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternet accessibility has been a major issue. If you can't get on the internet, if you're not comfortable using the internet, virtual care is really not a solution that is going to work for you,\u201d Lauzon says.<\/p>\n

This can lead to further isolation as well as people who give up on care altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people said that they had patients who maybe just didn't want to keep continuing with care if it was a virtual format. So there were some people that stopped treatment because they had to switch,\u201d Lauzon says.<\/p>\n

The assessment did mention recommendations for the government of Nova Scotia in order to address the rural care deficits.<\/p>\n

Some of these recommendations such as a hybrid model approach and creating a space for policy feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think now's the time for some reflection and to collaborate with rural people and rural practitioners to know, in context, \u2018how does this work?\u2019\u201d Lauzon says.<\/p>\n

Listen to the story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia published A Critical Assessment of Virtual Mental Health Care for Rural Nova Scotians on August 1. The assessment done by Robin Lauzon, a recent graduate from Acadia University, found that rural Nova Scotians have faced greater isolation since the start of the pandemic.\u00a0Virtual mental healthcare has exacerbated feelings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":170655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218,223],"tags":[28891,28890,28889,28892],"radio":[13058],"origine":[274,300,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170648"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171585,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170648\/revisions\/171585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170648"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=170648"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=170648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}