Preconditions | Practical steps to incorporate this precondition |
---|---|
Flexibility in the online program | Blended therapy should be tailored to the individual patient, based on individual needs. |
Ratio of online and offline sessions should be chosen during the therapy. | |
Content of online sessions should be flexible, by working with separate online assignments or modules. | |
Take patient characteristics into account | Involve patients into the choice for (and ratio of) blended therapy. |
Consider patients’: | |
▪ Co-morbidity (rule out crises; depression should be the main focus of therapy) | |
▪ Needs and motivation | |
▪ Intelligence (can they express themselves in writing) | |
▪ Skills (can they use a computer) | |
▪ Personality (self-management, discipline) | |
Meta-communication with patients on blended care | Tell them why you work with blended therapy. |
Show them how the program works. | |
Tell them it is important to finish the whole therapy, even though they might feel better half way through. | |
Tell them it is essential that they do the work and that the therapist only plays a supporting role. | |
Use online registration and intake modules | The patient knows that online technology will be used in therapy from the start. |
Patients are offered help immediately, they can start their therapy (intake) without waiting for an available therapist. | |
Emphasis is on patient self-management from the start of the therapy. | |
Use innovations that technology offers beneficially | Do not just copy a face-to-face protocol in an online program. |
Alternate reading texts with active assignments. | |
Use animated examples and videos. | |
Use persuasive technology to motivate patients and to support discipline. | |
Create a database with varying online tools and modules that can be applied as suited on each individual patient. | |
Train and educate therapists | Therapists should be motivated to work with blended therapy. |
Workflow and time investment will change. | |
Technical and practical skills are needed (how to support patients, when and how to provide online feedback). | |
Balance in “letting patients go” and stimulating and supporting them. | |
Implementation should be initiated and stimulated from the management | Therapists need to be trained which costs time and effort, this should be accommodated by the management. |