A Comparison of Self-Referral and Referral via Primary Care Providers, through Two Similar Digital Mental Health Services in Western Australia

Digital mental health services (DMHSs) deliver mental health information, assessment, and treatment, via the internet, telephone, or other digital channels. The current study compares two DMHSs operating in Western Australia (WA)—The Practitioner Online Referral System (PORTS) and MindSpot. Both provide telephone and online psychological services at no cost to patients or referrers. However, PORTS is accessed by patients via referral from health practitioners, and is designed to reach those who are financially, geographically, or otherwise disadvantaged. In contrast, MindSpot services are available to all Australian residents and patients can self-refer. This observational study compares characteristics and treatment outcomes for patients of PORTS and MindSpot in WA. Eligible patients were people who resided in WA and registered with either clinic from January 2019 to December 2020. Results showed that PORTS patients were more likely to be older, male, and unemployed. They were less likely to report a tertiary education and were more likely to live in areas with higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. Despite these differences, treatment outcomes were excellent for patients from both clinics. Results provide further evidence for the accessibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of DMHSs regardless of referral pathway or patient characteristics.

Moving Toward Environmental Sustainability: ICTs, Freight Transport, and CO2 Emissions

The link between ICTs, freight transport, and CO2 emissions has not received much explicit examination by researchers, despite freight transportation being an egregious contributor to environmental degradation. This paper investigates how ICTs can affect environmental quality when interacting with freight transport activities in 43 countries over the period 2002-2014, using carbon emissions as a proxy for environmental damages. ICTs are measured in terms of internet, telephone, and mobile phone technologies. Using GMM methodology, the results show that ICTs contribute to dampening environmental degradation when interacting with freight transport activities. Specifically, a 10% increase in the interaction between ICTs and freight transportation will decrease carbon emissions by between 1.27% and 3.02%. The results further suggest that fixed and smartphone technologies are the main contributors to reducing emissions when adopted in some specific transport sectors (i.e. road, rail, and inland), while the internet is the most efficient technology when interacting with air transport activity. In addition, the interaction between ICTs and multimodality accelerates environmental quality. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Delivering a patient education intervention using both the internet and telephone: A discursive presentation.

Post-discharge, patient education interventions have been implemented in the cardiovascular surgical population, in which the education is delivered over the telephone. This intervention has shown to be effective in reducing anxiety. However non-significant results have been reported for knowledge acquisition, performance of self-care behaviours, and symptom management during the first 3 weeks of recovery. An internet-telephone educational intervention is presented in this paper as an alternative to usual cardiovascular surgical, post-discharge patient education. It was reasoned that a combined internet-telephone intervention would decrease nursing workload, provide patients with increased access to information, and reduce the number of hospital readmissions and complications experienced during the post-hospital recovery period. A presentation of the intervention is provided where the components are individualized to reflect the learning needs of the individual patient. This is followed by a discussion of the various considerations for the intervention’s design and implementation as they relate to age and socio-economic status is also identified.

Delivering a patient education intervention using both the internet and telephone: A discursive presentation.

Post-discharge, patient education interventions have been implemented in the cardiovascular surgical population, in which the education is delivered over the telephone. This intervention has shown to be effective in reducing anxiety. However non-significant results have been reported for knowledge acquisition, performance of self-care behaviours, and symptom management during the first 3 weeks of recovery. An internet-telephone educational intervention is presented in this paper as an alternative to usual cardiovascular surgical, post-discharge patient education. It was reasoned that a combined internet-telephone intervention would decrease nursing workload, provide patients with increased access to information, and reduce the number of hospital readmissions and complications experienced during the post-hospital recovery period. A presentation of the intervention is provided where the components are individualized to reflect the learning needs of the individual patient. This is followed by a discussion of the various considerations for the intervention’s design and implementation as they relate to age and socio-economic status is also identified.

Estimation Under Mode Effects and Proxy Surveys, Accounting for Non-ignorable Nonresponse

We propose a new, model-based methodology to address two major problems in survey sampling: The first problem is known as mode effects, under which responses of sampled units possibly depend on the mode of response, whether by internet, telephone, personal interview, etc. The second problem is of proxy surveys, whereby sampled units respond not only about themselves but also for other sampled. For example, in many familiar household surveys, one member of the household provides information for all other members, possibly with measurement errors. Ignoring the existence of mode effects and/or possible measurement errors in proxy surveys could result in possible bias in point estimators and subsequent inference. Our approach accounts also for nonignorable nonresponse. We illustrate the proposed methodology by use of simulation experiments and real sample data, with known true population values.

Psychotherapy by Telephone or Internet in Austria and Germany Which CBT Psychotherapists Rate It more Comparable to Face-to-Face Psychotherapy in Personal Contact and Have more Positive Actual Experiences Compared to Previous Expectations?

Objectives: COVID-19 has led to changes in the provision in mental health services. The current study investigated influencing factors on: (i) the comparability of psychotherapy via internet/telephone with psychotherapy in face-to-face contact as well as (ii) the actual experience with psychotherapy via internet/telephone compared to respective prior expectations in CBT therapists. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in the form of an online survey. The research samples, registered cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) psychotherapists in Austria and Germany, were contacted by e-mail. Results: One hundred and ninety CBT therapists were analyzed in this study. The total number of patients treated via telephone/internet is a decisive factor for the subjective evaluation of the comparability of psychotherapy via telephone/internet and psychotherapy in personal contact. This factor also influences the extent (positive/negative) of the assessment of the actual experience with psychotherapy via internet/telephone compared to previous expectations. Neither age nor gender were associated with comparability of psychotherapy via internet/telephone with psychotherapy in face-to-face contact or the actual experience with psychotherapy via internet/telephone compared to respective prior expectations. Conclusions: Implications of the results are that attitudes towards remote psychotherapy might be increased in CBT therapists when they treat more patients remotely and experiences with remote psychotherapies should be included in psychotherapy training.

IMPLEMENTASI TEORI MAQASHID SYARI`AH ASY-SYATIBI DALAM MUAMALAH KONTEMPORER

<p>Maqashid Syariah Asy-Syatibi is one of the tools to monitor and balance the contemporary reality wherever and whenever. This is because the goal is very universal and can be recorded in various aspects of life, including traditional and contemporary muamalah practices. In contemporary practice, the use of Maqashid Syariah is inseparable from Muslim’s needs so it can be implemented in soul maintenance (hifz an-nafs); e.g. from the threat of death in the practice of trading gecko’s bile which is is believed to cure HIV AIDS. Another implementation is asset protection (hifz al-mal) in the practice of sharia insurance and sharia Reksa Dana (mutual fund). This can guarantee that one’s property will return according to mutual agreement if there is an unfortunate condition. Furthermore, the implementation of Maqashid Syariah Asy-Syatibi can encourage the hifz al-mal by financing through the trading practice using internet, telephone, WhatsApp, Instagram, and SMS.</p><p>Maqashid Syariah Asy-Syatibi merupakan salah satu alat untuk meneropong dan mengimbangi realitas kontemporer itu di mana dan kapan saja. Ini karena tujuannya sangat universal dan bisa terekam dalam berbagi aspek kehidupan, termasuk dalam praktik muamalah tradisional maupun kontemporer. Dalam praktik kontemporer, penggunaan Maqashid Syariah tidak lepas dari kebutuhan Muslim sehingga diimplementasikan dalam pemeliharaan jiwa (hifz an-nafs); seperti dari ancaman kematian dalam praktik jual-beli empedu tokek yang berkhasiat menyembuhkan HIV AIDS. Implementasi lainnya ialah penjagaan harta (hifz al-mal) yang terekam dalam praktik asuransi syariah maupun reksadana syariah. Ini dapat menjamin harta seseorang akan kembali sesuai perjanjian yang telah disepakati jika terjadi musibah. Selanjutnya implementasi maqashid Syari`ah Asy-Syatibi itu dapat mendorong terpeliharanya harta (hifz al-mal) dengan cara pembiayaan melalui praktik jual beli dengan menggunakan via internet, telepon, WhatsApp, Instagram, dan SMS.</p>

Analysing Bangladeshi Consumers’ Satisfaction and Preferences of E-banking Services in Small to Mid-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

The acceptance of Internet technologies has newly increased constant and rapidly in the era of information technology. It gives flexibilities to access E-banking systems on demand. Today E-banking is considered as the driver of any nation’s economy and it opens remarkable prospects all over the world. Basically, E-banking plays an ultimate character in supporting financial advancement of any country and provide financial services to the customers electronically. This Research analyses the satisfaction and preferences of E-banking in Bangladesh. It also discusses the success of E-banking in Small to Midsized Enterprise-SMEs of Bangladesh, the current E-banking infrastructure and future organisational plan about it. This Research mainly has used secondary research data and methods to provide a broad scenario of E-banking in Bangladesh, how to overcome the barriers in SMEs of Bangladesh for E-banking adoption. The Research is subject to academic journal articles, project reports, media articles, corporation based documents, Bangladesh Bank publication and other appropriate information. This Research also analyses the data collected from Bangladeshi government and non-government organisations and banking sector. It gathers answers from E-banking experts, IT educators, learners and academics as the respondents’ through interview on the basis of questionnaires which were prepared for this research purpose. Data were also collected by using interviews from Bangladesh E-banking based organizations that are offering their goods and services on electronic channels and professionals involved with E-banking related activities. The study found that E-banking is a platform where a customer performs online banking transaction without visiting a financial institution. E-banking is the influences of the future and it provides massive benefits to consumers regards to online transactions through internet, telephone and other electronic delivery channels. Bank in Bangladesh could use E-banking in order to gain economical advantage. At present, several Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) and Foreign Commercial Banks (FCBs) in Bangladesh offer online services and facilities within the branches of individual bank in the community. It is expected that banking can earn profit and offer better services to its customers by introducing E-banking facility more and more in Bangladesh. As an under developing country, Bangladesh is not fully known about E-banking sector in every area. As a result, this research also highlights the issues and factors related with E-banking e.g. cybercrime and try to discover the probable obstacles and prospects in Bangladesh to make an active solution of Bangladesh’s E-banking.

Evaluasi Kualitas Layanan terhadap Operator Telekomunikasi: Tinjauan Perspektif Pelanggan

This study examines the quality level of service in one of the telecommunication operator (mobile network provider) in Makassar. This paper focuses on the identification of the gaps, mapping quality level of service, and the evaluation of the service quality level. The study was conducted using SERVQUAL approach which refers to the five dimensions of service quality. SERVQUAL is helpful in identifying, mapping, and analyzing the gap level between expectations and perceptions of a telecommunication service. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to the 400 respondents’ mobile telecommunication users in Makassar. The results show that there were 10 negative attributes on the SERVQUAL value of 15 questions. This indicates that the service quality to the users is at the low level. For mapping and prioritization of services related attributes that need to be improved, this study used the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) diagram. The first quadrant indicates a high level of customer expectations relative to those attributes but on the perception remains low. The first quadrant is a mapping attribute which is prioritized in the improvement of service quality related to the reliability dimensions i.e the improvement of network quality, network expansion, and the affordable cost of access (Internet, telephone, and SMS).