Exploring New Opportunities for Mental Healthcare Through the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Internet of Things (IoT) provide new opportunities for healthcare to enhance the quality of life and safety of mental-health patients. However, only limited studies explore how IoT can be adopted to this end, and this study tries to fill this particular gap. This research includes a literature review and five cases with semi-constructed interviews that position the use and adoption of IoT applications in Dutch mental healthcare. This paper presents an explorative, interpretative, and mainly qualitative multiple case study. The outcomes show that privacy, security, knowledge of new technology, and opposition from traditional medical professionals are essential factors that currently reduce the acceptance of IoT in mental healthcare and lead to low IoT use.