Journal of Psychiatry

An evidence-based iCBT program for mental health

Annual Congress on Mental Health

July 09-11, 2018 | Paris, France

Ruth-Pauline Wachter,Christian Schachenhofer

iGumps R&D, Austria

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

The economically active employees in Europa are nearly 225 million people (Eurostat, 2017). About one-third of these employees are affected by Burnout caused by prolonged work-related stress (EU-OSHA, 2012). Hence the costs for work-related stress including treatment costs, employerâ??s costs and economic damage amount 4% of the EU GDP (gross domestic profit) each year. Thus it is hardly surprising that the EU has increased their work on improving health, promoting health and preventing mental illness. A lack of awareness, expertise, and research can be identified. Nevertheless, the available program is either timeconsuming or inefficient. Due to the very high treatment cost and employerâ??s additional costs for absenteeism and the economic costs for the lost output, prevention programs need to be affordable for organizations. A constantly high level of quality that does not cause higher costs than benefits was the vision for the Mental Health programs known under JagtheCoach. By combining the iCBT model with interventions and tools known from distance learning, an entirely new kind of Mental Health program was created. The clients utilized a web-based program with video tutorials, case vignettes, weekly notes, online discussions, and one-to-one Skype counseling sessions to improve their wellbeing, self-effectiveness and lower their stress level. Individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy meets Digitalization. Within 12 weeks clients have changed their unhealthy behavior in stressful situations and decreased situations of emotional exhaustion. The current program is focused on primary prevention only. Secondary prevention programs are planned for 2019.

Biography :

Ruth-Pauline Wachter has completed her first Master’s in European Economics and Management and decided after a meteoric rise in the field of Information Technologies to focus not only on financial counseling but also on psychological counseling. From the beginning of her academic career, she was fascinated by human behavior and how it can be changed. During her second Master’s in Psychology, she founded together with Christian Schachenhofer the iGumps R&D where she combines her IT knowledge with psychological solutions to enable human development by digitalization.

E-mail: pauline@igumps.com