Dr Lisa Patterson-Kane knows first-hand how e-psychology can bridge the mental health gap in rural and remote areas.

From the midst of a paddock, on the family sheep and cattle property on which she grew up and now helps run in Walcha in New South Wales, the clinical psychologist discusses her passion for using technology to reach and assist her clients.

Moving back to her home, located in one of the largest stock carrying areas in Australia and separated from Sydney by 420km, Lisa has been able to use technology to continue practising from a distance.

“I still do clinic visits…and I also use technology to maintain contacts with clients via email and telephone sessions,” she said.

“It seems to work. Probably one of the reasons why it does work is I worked up there (central west Queensland) for eight years.

“Most of the people know me and I know most of the people; the rapport has already been developed.”

Lisa has worked as a psychologist for 12 years with most of her time in the profession spent practising in rural and remote areas such as Mt Isa and Longreach in Queensland.

It was the realisation that people in remote communities often fail to receive the psychological care they need that gave Lisa the idea to create her own smart technology application.

In December, Lisa launched her Get Happy app, which delivers simple strategies to increase people’s happiness and wellbeing – wherever they live.

The app, available at the AppStore for $0.99, has been downloaded 2000 times and has reached further afield than Lisa ever imagined.

People have downloaded the app across Australia and as far away as the United States, Canada, Bahrain, Jordan and Poland.

The Get Happy app uses techniques based on the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy to provide personalised strategies to four major areas of happiness – relationships, personal growth, leisure and work education.

Lisa said the app, while no substitute for psychological therapy, is a self-help tool that enables the user to complete a self-rating system, which then develops a personalised strategy for the user.

“It’s about recognising the things in your life that you can change and taking action to change those things, and recognising the things in your life that you can’t change,” she said.

“It’s common sense-based therapy. It’s not about re-building the person…it’s about them looking at their life and picking their battles.”

Lisa, who is involved in the Australian Psychological Society’s e-psychology interest group, said she hopes to extend her e-psychology practice and also supports plans for the development of a national standard for e-psychology.

“I think if you are going to go into the area of e-psychology, it’s really important to get some mentoring and support around that field because it’s really easy to make a mistake,” she said.

“You don’t have the client sitting in front of you and if you make a mistake the ramifications are a lot worse.”

Lisa hopes Australia follows in the footsteps of the United States and embraces the use of e-psychology.

“I really see the potential for e-psychology. I think there’s a huge scope for it in rural and remote communities,” she said.

“I don’t think it should be used to replace face-to-face services. I don’t think we should say it’s too hard to recruit to rural and remote areas, we will just use e-psychology.

“I think in some situations it will compliment or enhance what’s being offered,” she said.

“I really think it’s invaluable. I suppose we are not seeing distance to services as a barrier. We are trying to find a way around the barrier.”