November 1, 2017
Dr. Vincent Agyapong worked with AHS Addiction and Mental Health North Zone launched Text4Mood in January 2016.
Story by: Lisa Laferriere and Amy Crofts
A Fort McMurray psychiatrist and Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) program have recently been recognized by the Mental Health Innovation Network, an international community of mental health innovators with headquarters at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Vincent Agyapong, an adult psychiatrist in Fort McMurray, worked together last year with AHS Addiction and Mental Health North Zone, to launch Text4Mood, a supportive text messaging program to residents of northern Alberta needing or wanting mental health support.
Text4Mood allows subscribers to receive daily supportive text messages which have been written by mental health therapists in collaboration with service users.
In the first year of its launch, more than 10,000 people subscribed to the program.
“Compared to a one-on-one session with a therapist, Text4Mood can reach thousands of people at once,” says Dr. Agyapong, who also holds a PhD in Global Health from the Centre for Global Health at Trinity College, University of Dublin. He also works as an Associate Clinical Professor with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta.
“This program is not a substitute for face-to-face services for those who require it, but it is an added support and provides an immediate service for those who subscribe.”
The Text4Mood program is now included under the “Innovation” category of the Mental Health Innovation Network’s (MHIN) online database. The MHIN is a global network of mental health innovators - researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, service users and donors. Mental health innovations are considered to be new or different, successful and cost effective ways of delivering better evidence-based mental health care.
“I am very pleased that the program has been a success and well received by northern Albertans. The recognition it received from the Mental Health Innovation Network is just another way of measuring its success and value,” says Dr. Agyapong
The program was selected by members of the MHIN’s core team based at the Centre for Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and WHO’s Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
“We certainly were not expecting it to take off the way that it did, but we are very happy that people are finding this program helpful and encouraging,” says Debi Morris, Director North Zone East Addictions and Mental Health, with AHS.
“We are always looking for ways to increase accessibility to services for Albertans, and this is just one other way that we can help support individuals and families.”
Dr. Agyapong presented on the Text4Mood Program at the 2017 Quality & Safety Summit in Edmonton Oct. 30-31. He will soon be taking the program findings to the international stage at the World Psychiatric Association’s Thematic Congress, Innovation in Psychiatry, in Melbourne Australia, Feb.25-28, 2018.
Call Health Link at 811 or visit ahs.ca for more information about mental health services in your area.
