Abstract
- Psychiatric treatments fail to produce positive outcomes when patients miss their appointments. Unfortunately, only about half of all patients needing psychiatric treatment actively engage in recommended treatment regimens. The reasons for non-engagement include stigma, ageism (i.e. mental health problems are perceived to be a normal part of ageing) and absence of patient condition insight (denial). On the other hand, reasons to attend psychiatric appointments are treatment readiness, recognition of treatment benefits, collaborative physicians and positive psychiatric treatment history. This implies a need for more patient-centred strategies to increase psychiatric treatment engagement. Simple mail and telephone reminders are an efficient way of increasing treatment awareness and subsequently attendance, but treatment attendance rates vary, depending on the source, time frame and level of automation (approximately 6–84% treatment attendance). Thus, a telephone-based intervention modeled on brief motivational interviewing (BMI6) that focuses on individual patient experiences and principles was developed to increase psychiatric treatment engagement. The present study examined a system for psychiatric appointment management (PAM) in community outpatients.