The effectiveness of internet delivery of mental health services will be researched by Len Bickman, who has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to undertake research at The University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne.
Professor Bickman is the Betts Professor at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
He said traditional community-based outpatient mental health services for youths presented significant access barriers such as geographic isolation, availability of specialists, and stigma.
"Service delivery using the Internet—e-therapy—has been shown to increase access and lower costs,” he said.
The project will combine his work on web-based feedback to clinicians with the work of Dr Robert King, University of Queensland, whose focus is on e-therapy.
The two have been collaborating since 1996. The aim of the Fulbright project is to bring them together to develop a large-scale demonstration project to evaluate the best ways to provide mental health services through the Internet.
In addition they will be working with Dr Jane Burns of the University of Melbourne and the Inspire Foundation in their web-based programs for youth.
“E-therapy offers the opportunity to overcome some of the barriers to obtaining mental health treatment, such as distance, limited transportation, need for specialised services and confidentiality," Professor Bickman said.
"Many young people feel more comfortable communicating in an online capacity than over the phone or face-to-face, as it assures anonymity.”
The work will integrate a web-based measurement feedback system developed by Professor Bickman and his colleagues at Vanderbilt called Contextualized Feedback Intervention and Training (CFIT), with the work of Drs King and Burns, who have expertise in the processes and effects of e-therapy.
“Combining e-therapy interventions with CFIT will improve documentation of what happens during treatment, and tracking of clients, therefore provide a way to measure the effectiveness of treatment,” Professor Bickman said.
He has a BS in Psychology from the City College of New York, an MA in Experimental Psychopathology from Columbia University and a PhD in Social Psychology from the City University of New York.
Professor Bickman has received various awards and prizes such as the Vanderbilt University Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research, the American Evaluation Association Award for Outstanding Evaluation and the American Psychological Association Public Interest Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy. He has also published widely, and undertaken many consultancies.
The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra.
Professor Bickman is one of 20 talented Americans to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2010.
For more details about Fulbright Scholarships visit www.fulbright.com.au
Media: Rosemary Schmedding 02 6260 4460
