Decentralized mental health services may be the response to the looming lack of mental health care professionals, based on professors from John Hopkins College located in Baltimore.
Talking with Cointelegraph, Dr. Johannes Thrul in the John Hopkins School of Mental Health postulated the mental health support sector might take a webpage from Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) by providing support services inside a decentralized system.
Dr. Thrul authored a This summer 22 academic paper searching into “Web3 and digital mental health,” envisioning a decentralized peer support system that depends on “individuals with resided experience” to supply help “based on their own knowledge of managing their very own conditions.”
Dr Thrul stated the machine works using a “crypto token associated with the community” which may be rewarded to individuals that “make positive contributions towards the community,” for example helping someone overcome a mental ailment inside a peer support enviroment.
During a period when I’ve found myself worried and anxious concerning the condition around the globe, it had been fun to operate about this genuinely positive and uplifting opinion article on the potential for web3 an internet-based peer support for mental health. https://t.co/rEngiaOL3S
— Johannes Thrul (@drjthrul) This summer 22, 2022
He stated the machine wouldn’t be certain to “border restrictions” noting how rapidly governments adapted to remote delivery of health services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, though he accepted it couldn’t switch the mainstream medical system alone. Instead, it may be accustomed to supplement visiting a traditional psychiatrist.
Another professor who led to the educational paper, Dr. Luke Kalb stated a decentralized peer support system will give you more versatility and freedom to the way we approach mental health problems, stating:
“[The] community can develop their very own creative methods to tackle problems […] this peer support system reveals to a lot of possibilities for creativeness.”
The professors noted that this type of system can become essential later on given the probability of lack of traditional mental health services later on with “61% of practicing psychiatrists within the U.S. are nearing retirement.”
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The paper also reported research through the Department of Health insurance and Human Services which projects “a protracted national workforce shortage in most mental health care professionals by 2025.”
Even though the professors have recently begun the first stages of research, they’re wishing to begin building the required professional relationships to determine this happen. Dr. Thrul stated, “it’s tough choosing the best technical partnership with similar shared vision […] however you want to put this available so that as a phone call to see, rally, and achieve out.”
