Today we are celebrating a significant milestone with the commissioning of digital treatment programs for panic and social anxiety in Helse Vest, as part of the agreement on guided internet treatment in all health regions in Norway.
Through the national framework agreement for digital home follow-up, led by Helse Sør-Öst, a mini-competition was announced in September with the aim of procuring solutions that would include a wide range of treatment programs: both existing eMeistring programs and the development of new digital treatment programs.
The fact that the mini-competition was announced across all regions through a national procurement also made the agreement historic. Only 5 months after the award, the first region goes into operation with two digital treatment programs.
"For many years, we have collaborated with Helse Vest on the development of digital rehabilitation programs, so that we can get up and running so quickly is the result of long-term cooperation and dedicated employees at Helse Vest who have set the highest priority for the implementation project," says Øyvind Grimsgaard, daily manager at Youwell.
"Today we start with a new solution and the first two digital treatment programs in the companies in Helse Vest. This is a big and important step towards achieving the goal of increasing the volume so that even more patients get the help they need. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the entire project team and everyone at Youwell for a fantastic job throughout the implementation period." says Vibeke Eide, project manager Helse Vest
Youwell has been responsible for providing training to Helse Vest in the use of the Youwell platform, and professionals can themselves develop programs and set up the program courses in the platform.
The way forward
Now that the first two treatment programs have been launched, it will only roll on with more programs gradually in all regions.
The commissioning of the two treatment programs marks the beginning of an exciting journey, explains Øyvind: "Now that we have launched the first programs, we will continue to roll out more treatment programs in all regions. Despite the different start of operations in the various regions, a solid interregional collaboration has been established where comprehensive and effective treatment options will be offered together which are a good supplement to ordinary forms of treatment."
This initiative is part of a larger investment in digital health services within mental health care and substance abuse treatment in Helse Vest and the other health regions. Rune Simensen, director of technology and e-health at Helse Sør-East RHF, says:
"In Helse Sør-Ost, digital healthcare services are an important supplement to the traditional treatment offer. Guided internet treatment is a documented offer with good results, and the agreement with Youwell will help to expand access to modern healthcare services and develop new offers for more patient groups in the future."
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