A Review into eHealth Services and Therapies: Potential for Virtual Therapeutic Communities - Supporting People with Severe Personality Disorder

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution of eHealth technologies, especially VR, and explores their potential in supporting virtual therapeutic communities for severe mental illnesses like Borderline Personality Disorder, aiming to empower patients and reduce healthcare burdens.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of eHealth advancements and presents a case study demonstrating how these technologies can support mental health treatment, particularly for severe personality disorders.

Findings

eHealth has evolved from basic databases to advanced VR systems.

Technology can empower patients and reduce healthcare system impact.

Potential applications extend to various mental health conditions.

Abstract

eHealth has expanded hugely over the last fifteen years and continues to evolve, providing greater benefits for patients, health care professionals and providers alike. The technologies that support these systems have become increasingly more sophisticated and have progressed significantly from standard databases, used for patient records, to highly advanced Virtual Reality (VR) systems for the treatment of complex mental health illnesses. The scope of this paper is to initially explore e-Health, particularly in relation to technologies supporting the treatment and management of wellbeing in mental health. It then provides a case study of how technology in e-Health can lend itself to an application that could support and maintain the wellbeing of people with a severe mental illness. The case study uses Borderline Personality Disorder as an example, but could be applicable in many other areas, including depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD. This type of application demonstrates how e-Health can empower the individuals using it but also potentially reducing the impact upon health care providers and services.