Telemedicina y salud mental en Colombia: ¿Qué aprendizajes dejó la pandemia y qué están haciendo los prestadores públicos y privados para atender la ansiedad y la depresión en los jóvenes hoy?
Thesis
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health system in 2020 caused a series of transformations in the care models of public and private providers in Colombia. Thus, Teleconsultation was implemented or used as a contingency to provide remote medical services through information and communication technologies. Additionally, the increase in the demand for Telepsychology care due to the growing symptoms of depression and stress among the population, correlated with quarantines and the uncertainty of the current situation, has captured our interest. In this sense, this work aims to investigate the lessons learned from the pandemic for the health system around Telemedicine and, in particular, to generate evidence about the health response on psychological care through tele-consultation. In this way, public health decision making can be supported and effective actions can be planned to address post-pandemic challenges around telepsychological care. Through 10 semi-structured interviews with scientific directors of hospitals, health care managers in different IPS and other academic experts, qualitative information was collected that allowed us to know the conception of Telemedicine in their environment and how it was approached in psychological or psychiatric consultations. Thus, the way it operates, its assets, barriers, opportunities and challenges are known. In an aggregate way, evidence and a proposal of the potential uses of Telemedicine today in psychology care is generated, taking into account the scientific and political context of the country. On the other hand, information is provided to public policy makers to generate discussions in the areas of financing and decision making on the installed capacities and the interoperability framework needed for this type of care.
