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Mental Health Goes Digital

2/19/2014

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Intro by Alexandra Caufin
People of all ages and social demographics are calling for action against a rising epidemic of mental illness across North America. This year, one in four Americans 18 and older will struggle with a diagnosable mental illness and many will not seek medical care (almost half of all Canadians who suffer from depression or anxiety have never seen a doctor about it). Without awareness, intervention and access to care, the cycle persists: mental illness is the number one reason for disability in North America and suicide remains the fourth leading cause of death in adults, more common than death by diabetes or stroke. 
 "Our online learning environment affords a safe and comfortable space for employees, conducive to the sensitive discussions that orbit mental health awareness."
- Canadian Mental Health Association 
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is stepping up as a first responder, announcing the launch of a three-part digital course Managing Mental Health in the Workplace. These kind of programs have been heralded as game changers––the difference between someone identifying mental illness and recovering, rather than allowing the disorder to spiral out of control affecting everything from family life to social life to professional life. 

CMHA’s recent release discusses the exciting new online project and zeroes in on thought-provoking articles, infographics and a TED Talk on how technology can and should be leveraged to combat mental illness. We couldn’t help but share!

Released by Canadian Mental Health Association earlier this month:
Canadian Mental Health Association Workplace
Here at the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), we are passionate about using technology to improve mental health awareness by providing better access to mental health training. With the fantastic results we’ve seen from initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk, the CMHA is proud to be taking our Managing Mental Health in the Workplace course digital. 

In partnership with ScholarLab, a leading innovator of online education in North America, we’ve developed an interactive online course loaded with helpful, perspective-shifting modules on mental health. Plus, our platform is accessible anywhere and adaptable for your individual employees.

How does it work?
Our professionally-filmed video lectures really give the feel of an in-person instructor-led course. But with pre-recorded content, you can pause and conduct discussions or backtrack to review major points and learning outcomes. Employees can register individually (or in groups for special rates) and begin the course right away. The system automatically tracks progress and organizes the modules so you and your employees always know where to pick things up again.

What are the benefits?
  • By taking this course digital, CMHA is reaching out to employers on a national level.
  • Studies show that implementing just-in-time learning results in time and cost savings, enhanced engagement and constructive changes in behaviour. Your employees won’t have to take time off or wait for an in person, one-time-only session. Consider this: a difficult mental health situation has arisen in the workplace. With the format of our online modules, your human resources team can log in and access critical information exactly when they need it.
  • Our online learning environment affords a safe and comfortable space for employees, conducive to the sensitive discussions that orbit mental health awareness. Employees will have privacy and flexibility in exploring their own perception of mental health which they may not be comfortable doing in a conventional classroom.

Is this the right choice for my organization?

Well, the Research Institute of America reported that online learning can advance knowledge retention by 25%-60%, especially because your employees will have the opportunity to revisit the training as needed. Plus, in terms of efficiency, a study conducted by Brandon Hall Research found that when compared to conventional in-classroom learning, online education requires 40%-60% less employee time.

If you’re curious about the benefits of online learning and want to learn more, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’ve assembled a selection of helpful articles, studies and infographics, below.

Resources
State of Digital Education
The State of Digital Education

Statistics Elearning Manager Should Know
Top 10 eLearning Statistics Every HR Manager Should Know

How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education
How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education

Why Improving Workplace Mental Health is Good Business
Why Improving Workplace Mental Health is Good Business from The Globe and Mail

Online Innovations 2014 Edutech

Edutech Gallops into the Year of the Horse: Five Online innovations We'll see in 2014 from the ScholarLab Research Desk

TED Talk EdX Online Education
Reshaping the learning experience with online education. TED Talk by Anant Agarwal, President of edX. EdX is a non-profit online initiative founded by Harvard and MIT.






Source List

National Institute of Mental Health - Leading Cause of Death (2007)
National Institute of Mental Health - Health and Education
Canadian Mental Health Association - Fast Facts
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The doctor is Now In, and she will skype with you: 4 Reasons Why Online Continuing Medical Education (CME) is a Prescription for Success

1/26/2014

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By Alexandra Caufin
PictureShutterstock.com
Dr. Jayne Lee is not quite a teleporter but she’s about as close as it gets. A major proponent of telemedicine, Lee is a Paris-dwelling physician who treats her patients in North Carolina and Kentucky straight from France using robotic technology. And she’s not alone. In December 2013, the tv-famous psychiatrist Dr. Phil McGraw made headlines by announcing his role as advisor to Doctor on Demand, a new enterprise designed to provide care via mobile medicine.

In a world where society’s inevitable adoption of technology has made it possible to completely reinvent how we communicate, socialize and learn, healthcare is no exception. McGraw and Lee may seem like cutting edge futurists, but they are just two unique stories of the many healthcare professionals turning to technology to improve quality of care. 45% of clinicians now use smartphones and tablets to collect data at their patients’ bedsides. In fact, nearly all healthcare IT professionals report that their organizations supply mobile devices to clinicians to support day-to-day work activities, and 2 out of 3 have an official mobile technology plan in place.

We’re not just seeing technology being used in patient care, medical education is going digital as well. In 2012, for example, 40% of practicing physicians in North America were using online Continuing Medical Education (CME) to satisfy their annual requirements, up dramatically from 18% in 2005. By evolving the way that we deliver medical education, we are seeing real potential to in turn evolve the way we heal, treat and give care. Here are the four reasons why technology will continue to transform medical education and thus, the face of healthcare this year.


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MOBILE CHARGED MEDICINE
Some studies indicate that as much as 80% of physicians have implemented mobile technology approaches in providing patient care, improving ease in communication, data-taking and the sharing of information. With mobile devices already in their hands, healthcare professionals will have greater access to a ripening ecosystem of digital medical education, unify their working life with their continued pursuit of knowledge.


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CME FOR A MODERN WORLD
With increasingly longer wait times across North America, physicians are overbooked and scrambling to manage busy practices, and thus attending onsite CME is becoming less and less feasible. Many are turning to the anytime, anywhere, self-paced convenience that online CME offers to on-the-go professionals. As technology continues to develop with applications like interactive webinars, livestream lectures and learner-centred platforms, online CME becomes the central environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

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THE ECONOMIC EDGE
If we're talking dollars and cents, the ability to participate in CME remotely has resulted in sizeable cost savings, both for learners and course developers, sometimes as much as 50%, when compared with in-class equivalents. With budget cuts and the downsizing that healthcare organizations are facing, saving money on education programs is a welcomed benefit. Ten years ago, course creation tools were labour intensive, and producing just one hour of online content could have easily cost $10,000. Better creation technology has made it far easier, faster and more inexpensive to develop online courses for medical professionals.


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ENHANCED ACHIEVEMENT, ENHANCED CARE
The million-dollar question: are online CMEs as effective as their traditional in-class counterparts? Available research suggests yes, especially in terms of enhancing the learning experience in the medical sector. Put it this way: we now have a robot that can virtually enable a doctor to do her rounds from across the world. We have the technologies, and it does seem as though the ability to create online education that is as engaging, as involved, and as impactful as in-classroom learning, is very real. In some cases, achievement levels stand to be superseded because of a greater access, a superior method of information exchange, and more tools to facilitate collaboration with peers. 






Cited:

2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, December 3, 2012
ACCME 2012 Annual Report

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