Participants in the Banbury Center鈥檚 鈥淏ridging the Research-to-Practice Chasm in Digital Mental Health鈥� meeting have published their recommendations for digital mental health treatments (DMHTs). The article, entitled 鈥淏anbury Forum Consensus Statement on the Path Forward for Digital Mental Health Treatment鈥� was published in the journal Psychiatric Services.
This paper is the product of two Banbury Forum meetings, which included participants from healthcare organizations, insurance companies, employers, patients, researchers, policymakers, health economists, and DMHT companies.
DMHTs are services that provide mental health management through the use of smartphone and web applications. The participants of these forums evaluated evidence on the effectiveness of DMHTs, identified the challenges to their sustainability, and investigated the factors for successful implementation. Their recommendations are:
- guided DMHTs should be offered to all patients experiencing common mental disorders
- DMHT products and services should be reimbursable by insurance carriers to support integration into the U.S. healthcare landscape
- a framework should be developed to support decision-makers in evaluating DMHTs.
鈥淲e were thrilled to convene this meeting at Banbury, and even more pleased that the participants were able to translate their work into this publication, sharing practical recommendations for implementing digital mental health tools,鈥� said Rebecca Leshan, executive director of the Banbury Center. 鈥淭his massive wave of mental health needs during the pandemic, combined with social distancing, really benefited from remote health options and I hope this paper can guide more permanent integration of these tools into U.S. healthcare.鈥�
Citation
Mohr, D.C., et al., 鈥淏anbury Forum Consensus Statement on the Path Forward for Digital Mental Health Treatment鈥�, Psychiatric Services, January 20, 2021, DOI:
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