ACC seeks digital mental health supports

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

ACC has released a Request for Information for the provision of digital mental health supports, describing it as a "unique opportunity to widen the reach of such tools within Aotearoa New Zealand".

ACC provides therapy to people who have experienced sexual violence through the Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims contract and has experienced a 77.5 per cent increase in claims made over the past five years.

The RFI says the issue of increasing claim numbers is "compounded by insufficient workforce capacity, including a lack of culturally appropriate and geographically available services".

This can result in long wait times before people are able to see a therapist, and ACC is investigating how it could reduce these by offering access to digital mental health supports to these clients. .

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"These could also serve as an additional offering to support individuals while they are in therapy or when they have finished or completed their treatment under the ISSC," the RFI says.

It adds that clients should be able to use these supports independently and in conjunction with their therapist.

Executive director of the eMental Health International Collaborative, and eMental Health Lead, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at Auckland University of Technology, Anil Thapliyal, says mental health challenges for sensitive claims clients do not stop happening after traditional business hours and over the weekends or public holidays.

"We need to view digital mental supports as complementary adjunct and an integral part of the care pathways," he says.

"This is a brilliant response by ACC, which in my view will give the sector a unique opportunity to scale access to digital mental health tools for highly vulnerable sensitive claims clients."

Anna Elders, chair of the Digital Health Association Digital Wellbeing Industry Group, says the RFI highlights how technology can be used to achieve a paradigm shift towards a more person/whānau centred and trauma-informed approach to care.

"Across Aotearoa, pioneering services are beginning to develop and deliver blended pathways of care using digital technology and face-to-face support to open access and provide choices for people in a way we haven’t been able to before," she says.

Both Elders and Thapliyal agree that we will never have the specialist workforce to provide the level of psychological supports and care required and the ability to distribute that care equitably across them motu.

"This is a game changer when we look at our workforce capacity issues. It allows us to deliver evidence-based support and treatment in a stepped approach, helping us protect and extend our specialist in-person therapy resources," says Elders.



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