Familiarity with and intentions to use Internet-delivered mental health treatments among older rural adults

Abstract

Objectives: Older adults are the fastest growing age group in Australia, necessitating an increase in appropriate mental health services in the coming years. While Internet-delivered mental health treatments have been established as acceptable and efficacious among younger samples, little research has explored whether they would be similarly useful in older populations.

Methods: The participants were part of the Australian Rural Mental Health study, which explores mental health and well-being in residents of non-metropolitan New South Wales. A postal survey was used to assess knowledge of and intentions to use Internet-delivered mental health treatments. Demographics, mental health, and frequency of Internet use were also measured.

Results: The survey was completed by 950 adults aged 50–93. The sample was largely unfamiliar with Internet mental health services, with 75% reporting that they had never heard of them and a further 20% not knowing any details of what they involved. Intentions to use these services were also low, at 13.5%; however, this increased with level of familiarity. Respondents with higher psychological distress, higher education, and more frequent Internet use were significantly more likely to consider using Internet treatments.

Conclusions: Among older adults, overall awareness of Internet-delivered mental health treatments appears to be limited; however, higher familiarity contributes to higher intentions to use these treatments. Importantly, respondents with higher distress and greater computer literacy were more likely to consider mental health treatments delivered via the Internet. Future research exploring strategies to increase the promotion of these services to older samples may further improve their perceptions and use.

Keywords:

• Internet treatment
• mental health
• rural
• older adults

Acknowledgements

We wish to recognise the contribution of the ARMHS chief investigators: Professor David Lyle, Associate Professor Lyn Fragar, Professor John Beard, Professor Vaughan Carr, Professor Jeffrey Fuller, Associate Professor Helen Stain, Professor Prasuna Reddy, and Senior Project Co-ordinator Dr Clare Coleman. We wish to acknowledge the support of directors of Mental Health Services in the relevant Local Health Districts during the course of this phase of the study: Drs Russell Roberts, Richard Buss, and Dinesh Arya, and particularly acknowledge the research site coordinators in each site: Jan Sidford, John Ogle (Broken Hill), Trim Munro, Amy Strachan (Moree), Louise Holdsworth, Kath O’Driscoll (Lismore), Cheryl Bennett, Jannelle Bowler (Orange), along with Fleur Hourihan, Dr Gina Sartore and Denika Novello.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council [grant number 401241], [grant number 631061]; and also supported by a Research Capacity Building Grant to the Australian Rural Health Research Collaboration. Tonelle Handley is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Australian Rotary Health, which is acknowledged with gratitude.