Automated telehealth for managing psychiatric instability in people with serious mental illness

AbstractBackground: Serious mental illness (SMI) with psychiatric instability accounts for disproportionately high use of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of an automated telehealth intervention supported by nurse health care management for improving psychiatric illness management and reducing acute service use among individuals with SMI and psychiatric instability.Methods: Thirty-eight individuals with SMI received the automated telehealth intervention for 6 months. Psychiatric symptoms, illness self-management, and self-reported service use (emergency room visits and hospital admissions) were collected at baseline, 3- and 6-months. Measures of quality of life, health indicators, and subjective health status were also collected.Results: Participants demonstrated improvements in self-reported psychiatric symptoms and illness self-management skills, an 82% decrease in hospital admissions (from 76 to 14 hospitalizations, p < 0.001) and a 75% decrease in emergency...