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Principal Investigator:
Bonita C. Long, Ph.D.
Department: Educational
and Counselling Psychology and Special Education
Title of Project: "Telehealth: Wellness and Health Education"
The project is ongoing. Estimated completion date is April 2002.
1. Summary
of activities to date
This project was
started by Dr. Bonita Long in 1999 and stems from the fact that Dr. Long
is supervising two doctoral students (Kate Collie and Marie-Hélène
Pelletier) who are doing research in the area of telehealth/distance health
education. Telehealth is an intrinsically interdisciplinary field, and
is a new and complex area of research. Dr. Long has extensive experience
with interdisciplinary research, specifically research that combines mental
health, physical health, and education. As a supervisor of two telehealth
projects, she saw the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. Furthermore,
she envisioned the benefits of such collaboration to other telehealth
researchers at UBC and elsewhere.
In this first year
of the 3-year grant period, we had four primary tasks:
- a) to establish
an education-focused network of telehealth researchers at UBC and elsewhere
- b) to begin compiling
a directory of telehealth information
- c) to begin to
organize pilot projects relating to our telehealth research
- d) to seek further
funding for the project
The research team
met regularly during the year. In addition there were several meetings
in small groups, often involving Kate Collie, Marie-Hélène
Pelletier, and individual members of the research team.
The research team
consists of:
| Principal
and Co-Investigators: |
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Dr. Bonita
Long |
ECPS
|
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Dr. Marla
Arvay |
ECPS
|
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Dr. Linda
Stanley Wilson |
CUST
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| UBC
Collaborators: |
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Dr.
Kellogg Booth |
MAGIC
- Computer Science
|
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Dr.
Brian Fisher |
MAGIC
- Computer Science |
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Dr.
Joanna Bates |
Family
Practice
|
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Dr.
John Gilbert |
Health
Sciences
|
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Marie-Hélène
Pelletier |
Ph.D.
student, ECPS/counselling Psychology Program
|
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Kate
Collie |
Interdisciplinary
Ph.D. student, Institute of Health Promotion Research
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Davor
Cubranic |
Ph.D.
student, Computer Science
|
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Danielle
Conrad |
MA student,
ECPS/ counselling Psychology Program
|
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|
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| Community
Collaborators: |
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Dan Mitchell,
M.A. |
Counsellor,
co-founder of "Therapy Online" |
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Dr. Robert
Wilson |
Wilson
Banwell and Associates, Inc. |
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2. Highlights
of research to date
(a) Establishment
of a Network of Telehealth Researchers:
The research team
meetings were not only an opportunity to develop our research ideas, but
also to broaden our network of collaborators. This was done both at UBC
and beyond UBC.
At UBC, the team
met regularly for two hours at a time to work on a variety of tasks, including
discussing with each other our involvement and expertise relating to telehealth,
sharing scientific literature about telehealth, planning the format and
content of the telehealth directory, participating in structured small
group activities designed to clarify research directions, and developing
strategies for obtaining further funding.
Over the course of
the year, other people were invited to attend our meetings. These people
included:
- Ann Bishop
(Research Associate, Health Promotion Research)
- Dr. Hal Siden
(Director of Telehealth, BC Women's and Children's Hospital)
- Dr. John Willinsky
(LANE)
- Dr. Jim Frankish
(Psychologist, Director of the Institute of Health Promotion Research)
- Dr. Joan Bottorff
(School of Nursing)
- Diane Janes
(Distance Education and Technology, Continuing Studies).
Davor Cubranic
developed a listserv for the team, which allowed team members to share
information and ideas between meetings.
Marie-Hélène
Pelletier and Kate Collie established connections with psychologists,
other mental health clinicians/educators, and community and industry partners
from different parts of Canada and the United States. Some of these contacts
were facilitated by the attendence of Marie-Hélène Pelletier
at the Canadian Society for Telehealth (CST) Conference in October 1999
in Calgary, which has allowed her to network with researchers involved
in telehealth in Canada. This allowed us to discover that very limited
work is presently being done in behavior telehealth and distance health
education. It also showed very clearly that a strong interest in telehealth
and distance health education exists across a range of disciplines. These
people include:
- Dr. Michael
Catchpole (Psychologist, Port Alberni, BC)
- Dr. Leigh Jerome
(Psychology Department, AKAMAI and Tripler Army Medical Center, HI)
- Dr. Harry Karlinsky
(Psychiatrist, Project Director, U.B.C. Mental Health Evaluation and
Community Consultation Unit (MHECCU))
- Dr. Christian
Keresztes (Psychologist, Queen’s University, ON)
- Dr. Maria Klawe
(Dean of Science, UBC)
- Dr. Peter McLean
(Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, UBC)
- Dr. Marlene
Maheu (Psychologist, San Diego, CA)
- Cathy Malchiodi
(Registered Art Therapist, Salt Lake City, ID)
- Dr. Sarah Miyahira
(Psychology Department, AKAMAI and Tripler Army Medical Center, HI)
- Craig Ross
(U.B.C. Telestudios Coordinator)
- Dr. Beth H.
Stamm ( Institute of Rural Health Studies, Idaho State University,
ID)
Marie-Hélène
Pelletier is now a member of the CST Membership Committee.
Kate Collie and Marie-Hélène
are members of the following telehealth listservs: "Telehealth" and "International
Society of Mental Health Online".
(b) Compiling
a Directory of Telehealth Information:
Our reviews of printed
and electronic literature about telehealth (health and health education)
have shown that there is a very limited amount of quality research in
this area, and that the need for research is great. A summary
of our reviews will be the basis of the telehealth directory we are developing.
The directory will be in the form of a website (created by Kellogg Booth,
Brian Fisher, and Davor Cubranic). The organization and initial categories
for the directory have been established.
(c) Pilot Projects:
As our knowledge
of the field is growing, plans for specific pilot projects are evolving.
Funds have not been used to set up pilot projects yet. Accordingly, we
have decided to postpone the visits to North American telehealth sites
in order to target more closely what we need to learn as we get closer
to conducting the pilot projects.
(d) Seeking Further
Funding:
In September 2000,
the team will go forward with the first step of preparing an application
for a Peter Wall Institute Major Thematic Grant. This will be a workshop
held at the Peter Wall Institute at which the team will consolidate the
main research questions and determine which outside researchers will be
involved. Other funding sources that are being considered include the
Health Infostructure Support Program, the Open Society Institute Individual
Project Fellowships, and the Vancouver Foundation.
In April 2000, Marie-Hélène
Pelletier obtained a travel grant to present a telehealth symposium at
the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association in Ottawa
(June 2000).
3. Ways
in which the research to date has enhanced opportunities for securing
future funding
The fact that we
have put together a multi-disciplinary team of university and community
researchers who are all interested in this new area of research (telehealth
and tele-health education) has put the team in a good position to apply
for funding such as a Peter Wall Institute Major Thematic Grant. The emphasis
we have put on networking has helped us learn about possible sources of
funding.
4. Plans
for dissemination and publication of the research results
The following list
includes papers and conference presentations to date:
PUBLICATIONS:
Collie, K., &
Cubranic, D. (in press) Computer-supported distance art therapy: A focus
on traumatic illness. In H. Resnick (Ed.) Innovations in Social Work Practice
and Education. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Collie, K., &
Cubranic, D. (1999). An art therapy solution to a telehealth problem.
Art Therapy: The Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 16(4),
pp. 186-193.
Collie, K., Cubranic,
D., & Booth, K. (1999). Computer-supported distance art therapy: Beyond
computerization. In Proceedings of WebNet 2000, AACE: Association for
the Advancement of Computers in Education.
Collie, K., Mitchell,
D., & Murphy, L. (2000). Skills for cybercounseling: Maximum impact
at minimum bandwidth. In J. Bloom & G. Walz (Eds.) Cybercounseling
and Cyberlearning: Strategies and resources for the millennium (pp. 219-236).
Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association and Greensboro, NC: CAPS,
Inc.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
Collie, K., Cubranic,
D., & Booth, K. Computer-supported distance art therapy: Beyond computerization.
WebNet 99: Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education,
Honolulu, HI, October 25-30, 1999.
Collie,
K., & Cubranic, D. The development and evaluation of a computer system
for distance art therapy. In P.L. Schneider and M.M. Maheu (Chairs), A
Cross Perspective of the Integration of Technology and Mental Health Service.
Symposium Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association (APA), Boston, MA.
Pelletier,
M.-H., Maheu, M., & Burton, D. (Accepted, 2000). Assessment in telehealth :
Innovative graduate students research. Symposium accepted at the annual
meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA), Washington, DC.
Pelletier,
M.-H., & Keresztes, C. (Accepted, 2000). Telehealth: Clinical and
organizational issues in vidoconferencing for mental health care. Symposium
accepted at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association
(CPA), Ottawa, On.
Wilson,
R. F. & Pelletier, M.-H. (2000, April). Telehealth: An overall perspective.
Symposium presented at the annual meeting of the Employee Assistance Services
of North America (EASNA), Vancouver, BC.
Pelletier,
M.-H. (1999, August). Integrating Telehealth and Media: Radio Psychology.
In P.L. Schneider and M.M. Maheu (Chairs), A Cross Perspective of the
Integration of Technology and Mental Health Service. Symposium Presented
at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA),
Boston, MA.
OTHER
WORK:
Pelletier, M.-H.
(1999). Integrating Telehealth and Media: Radio and Internet Psychology.
TelehealthNews. Retrieved October 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.telehealth.net
PLANNED PUBLICATIONS
AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Kate Collie, with
Kellogg Booth and Joanna Bates. "Human Factors in Telehealth: What Can
We Learn from Other Fields?" Journal article in progress.
Marie-Hélène
Pelletier, with Joanna Bates, Leigh Jerome, and Beth Stamm. "Assessment
in telehealth: Issues in the effectiveness of psychotherapy delivered
through videoconferencing". Journal article in progress. (See attached
Directed Study final paper.)
5. Extent
and nature of student participation and training
Kate and Marie-Hélène,
two doctoral students, are responsible for organizing the team meetings,
recording the minutes, and are involved in managing all aspects of the
grant. Davor Cubranic, Ph.D. student in computer science, is on the team
as a computer programming consultant. He is maintaining the listserve
and will help create the website directory. Danielle Conrad, a first year
MA student in the Counselling Psychology program has joined the team as
a volunteer.
Kate Collie’s
dissertation is on the topic of creative expression in distance psychosocial
care for people facing life-threatening illnesses. This dissertation research
is a continuation of Kate’s Master’s research, which was conducted
collaboratively with Davor Cubranic and was supervised by Dr. Long. Dr.
Long is co-supervising Kate Collie’s doctoral work with Dr. Booth.
Marie-Hélène
Pelletier’s dissertation is in the area of effectiveness of psychological
services (education, therapy) provided through videoconferencing. After
having done her Master’s focused on the treatment of people suffering
from panic disorder with agoraphobia, she has paired her interest in anxiety
disorders with telehealth. Dr. Long is supervising Marie-Hélène’
doctoral research.
Both dissertations
are directly supported by the Incubator Grant.
(a) Directed Studies
Kate Collie undertook
a telehealth directed study with Dr. Kellogg Booth and Dr. Joanna Bates.
The purpose of the directed study was to bring information from the fields
of computer-mediated communication, human-computer interaction, computer-supported
collaborative work, distance education (and other related fields) to bear
on questions raised in literature about behavioural telehealth. The directed
study involved a review of literature about behavioural telehealth (mental
health care from a distance) and review of literature from other fields
addressing key questions derived from the telehealth literature review.
A paper reporting on the project is being prepared for publication. This
directed study enabled Kate to conduct part of the literature review for
her PhD research project, to focus her research question, and to begin
creating a directory of telehealth information.
In June 1999, Marie-Hélène
Pelletier started a directed study that was supervised by Dr. Joanna Bates
(UBC instructor), Dr. Beth Stamm ( Institute of Rural Health Studies,
Idaho State University, ID), and Dr. Leigh Jerome (Psychology Department,
AKAMAI and Tripler Army Medical Center, HI). Drs. Stamm and Jerome were
supervising Marie-Hélène through email, which worked very
well. The goal of the directed study was to examine the empirical literature
and projects in the field of telehealth associated with the use of videoconferencing
in psychotherapy, with a particular focus on the kind of data that are
collected. Course readings covered such topics as the conceptual issues
related to psychotherapy done through videoconferencing, conceptual and
methodological issues in data collection, individual differences, and
influences of gender, culture, and context. This directed study enabled
Marie-Hélène to conduct part of the literature review for
her PhD research project, to focus her research question, and to begin
creating a directory of telehealth information. This directed study was
completed in December 1999.
(b) Travel/Conferences
Marie-Hélène
Pelletier and Kate Collie both presented at the American Psychological
Assocation in August 1999. Kate Collie and Davor Cubranic both presented
at the WebNet 99 conference (Association for the Advancement of Computers
in Education). Marie-Hélène Pelletier will present at the
Canadian Psychological Association in June 2000.
6. Conclusions
Research team members
have communicated to us that their involvement in this project has been
fruitful for them. New collaborations have been established, and a network
of telehealth researchers now exists. Specific comments from team members
include:
"My involvement
in the "Telehealth: Wellness and Health Education" project has allowed
me to learn about the field of telehealth as it pertains generally to
health education and mental health education, and specifically to distance
psychosocial care (including health education) for people with life-threatening
illnesses. As a result of the networking and idea-sharing that is at the
heart of this project, I have a clearer sense of how to think comprehensively
about the logistical, political, clinical, technical, and educational
dimensions of telehealth. My research focus has shifted from a purely
clinical (therapeutic) perspective to a perspective based on using available
technologies to blend health care and health education, as needed."
"I have found
a rich and unique combination of expertise in the "Telehealth: Wellness
and Health Education" team, which provided a very fertile terrain
for developing ideas about how telehealth can be applied and researched.
The team members were instrumental in generating contacts with other researchers,
which also contributed to the team’s ideas. The financial support
provided by the Incubator Grant opened doors for me in allowing me to
network with other researchers, either by traveling to conferences or
getting in touch with people through telecommunication means. In the next
year, the financial resources will also be crucial in allowing me to perform
the necessary pilot project. The overall support that I have received
because of the formation of this group of researchers is invaluable."
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