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Background: COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all routine and emergency hospital services, including our out-and-in-patient psychiatric services. Aim: To study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in providing in-and-out-patient psychiatric services and the experience of tele-consultation services in our level-3 COVID hospital. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study using an administrative database at psychiatry in-and-out-patient department. All the cases that were reported to us, through emergency Out-Patient Department (OPD) and tele-consultation OPD, from April 2020 to October 2020, were included in the study. Data, thus obtained, were compared with the out-and-in-patient data during the same period on the previous year. Results: During the study period, there was a decline in out-patient registration of patients by 94.5%, and a reduction in admission rate was 75.5%, in comparison with the previous year. During 3 months of tele-consultation service provided, 23.5% of patients had the diagnosis of depression, 21.4% of them had various types of headaches, 15.9% of patients had psychosis, 15.3% had anxiety disorders, and 8.8% had a bipolar-affective disorder. Conclusion: Being a level-3 COVID hospital, our hospital suffered significantly in relation to psychiatric in-and-out-patients attendance and service recipients during the study period of COVID-19 pandemic.
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INTRODUCTION: Health systems around the world are struggling with the massive numbers of people with mental disorders who require professional care. The treatment gap for mental disorders is high all over the world, with between 76 and 85% of people in low- and middle-income countries with severe mental disorders receiving no treatment for their mental health conditions. Tele-psychiatry is used as an alternative solution to the problem of limited mental health services and effective Tele-psychiatry service use may be achievable if mental health providers have a good attitude towards it. OBJECTIVE: To assess the attitude of mental healthcare providers toward Tele-psychiatry services and associated factors at public referral hospitals in Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia, 2022. METHOD: A Multicenter institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 413 mental health professionals working in public referral hospitals in Addis Ababa city, from May 04 to June 10, 2022. Data were collected by using a structured and self-administered questionnaire prepared by reviewing previous related studies. Epi Data version 3.1 and Stata version 14 were used for data entry and analysis respectively. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with attitudes toward Tele-psychiatry services. A statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. RESULT: A total of 413 Participants were enrolled with a response rate of 91.8%. The majority of respondents 230 (55.69%) were male and the mean age of participants was 29 years (SD + 5.02). In this study the majority (49%) of mental health care professionals had a poor attitude toward Tele-psychiatry. Having electronic health technology experience [AOR 16.79; 95% CI (4.26, 29.3)], lack of training in telemedicine applications [(AOR 0.1; 95% CI (0.01, 0.41)], a good computer uses for daily work activities [AOR 3.65; 95% CI (1.14, 11.60)], availability of e-Health technology awareness program [AOR 0.16; 95% CI (0.03, 0.90)], having a positive perception about the importance of e-Health technologies[AOR 0.041; 95% CI (0.01, 0.29)] and having good knowledge of Tele-psychiatry services [AOR 6.89; 95% CI (1.8, 12.0)] were significantly associated with attitude towards Tele-psychiatry services. CONCLUSION: This study found that mental healthcare providers at a public referral hospital in Addis Ababa city generally had poor attitudes regarding Tele-psychiatry services. Considering the significant factors will improve the attitude to use tele-psychiatry services in Ethiopia.