Teletherapy can provide benefits for any type of patient seeking or needing mental health speciality care. Research has confirmed that teletherapy is safe, effective, and capable of increasing access to the mental health care specialty area; and is able to do so just as effectively as in-person face-to-face mental health specialty care. Any individual who can classify themselves within one of the 9 broad categories discussed in this article should consider the use of teletherapy for their mental health speciality care.
Many patients live in an area that severely limits access to professional mental health speciality care. This could be the patient who lives in a rural area and would require a long drive to be able to meet with a health care specialist, or it could be a patient who lives in an area with a health professional shortage.
It is estimated that more than one in every five patients lives in a health professional shortage area. What this means is that there is a higher demand for healthcare professionals in the patient’s area than the current professionals in that area can accommodate. This not only makes getting an appointment difficult, but it can also mean that the professional may not have the necessary time to dedicate to you as a patient because of the demand from other patients.
Some patients already have found that perfect mental health care specialist who they cannot imagine their life without. The relationship and bond have already been built, the specialist already knows the back story of the patient, and the patient is completely comfortable providing new information to this specialist. Then the patient moves and it’s not an area that their specialist is able to meet with them from.
There is no reason to lose the access to a great relationship that has already been built due to distance when teletherapy technology can be used to fill the gap. The patient does not have to worry about starting over from scratch because of losing their specialist to distance and even more importantly the specialist does not have to worry about the patient losing care altogether.
Many people travel for various reasons including work, school, visiting with family, and vacations. For the patient who travels frequently teletherapy means they don’t ever have to worry about not having access to their mental health care specialist. This also makes it easier for patients to schedule appointments without having to take travel into consideration.
Sometimes a patient has no obstacle to seeking mental health specialty care other than the fact that their lifestyle is very busy. Many people with a very busy lifestyle also have a strong need for mental health care because of the stresses of their busy lifestyle; however, finding the time to actually seek that care and take care of themselves is often on the bottom of their list of priorities.
Teletherapy offers the flexibility to meet with a busy patient on their own terms, making mental health care even more accessible to a group of people who normally would not be obtaining such care.
The younger patient is an ideal patient to use teletherapy because they are accustomed to using technology in every aspect of their lives. The fact that using technology for mental health speciality care appointments simplifies many of the burdens a younger patient would face in seeking care, such as finding time for an appointment and overcoming the stigma of asking for help, makes teletherapy especially appealing to this group. This is important because this demographic is also one of the ones most at risk for developing mental health disease.
Young patients are not the only age group who can find teletherapy preferable to in-person face-to-face care, the elderly or sick patients also will find great improvements in their ability to access mental health speciality care through teletherapy.
Both elderly patients and sick patients are able to benefit from teletherapy because it offers them a means to access their mental health speciality care without having to undertake the burden of the expense, time, difficulty and pain of travel, and also decreases their risk of being exposed to other ill people who may be contagious.
The patient who is privately insured can also benefit from teletherapy services just as much as those who are self-paying for care because private insurance companies are increasingly adding coverage for teletherapy into their plans, either by choice or by force. Although many private insurers are adding the coverage voluntarily as they acknowledge the need to encourage teletherapy, there is also legislation on the state level aimed at forcing private insurers to reimburse medical services that are provided through teletherapy if those same services are covered when performed during in-person face-to-face visits.
Teletherapy is unquestionably beneficial for patients who have to seek emergency care or urgent health care as this type of care is unpredictable and thus planning for an adequate amount of coverage from mental health care specialists is difficult in these environments. Through the use of teletherapy, emergency rooms and urgent health care facilities are able to connect their patients with mental health care professionals outside of regular business hours when an emergency or urgent health care need arises.
Whole Mind Psychotherapy uses a platform called SimplePractice to handle intake forms, documentation, payments, and to offer secure communication between us. Your video appointment is 100% HIPAA-compliant.
2020 COVID-19 Pandemic and Telehealth Sessions
Due to COVID-19 requirements, Whole Mind Psychotherapy is currently ONLY providing Telehealth sessions (no in-person therapy) using the HIPAA-compliant platform Simple Practice. Sessions can be performed using your phone, computer, or tablet. Morning, evening, and weekend times are available. Please be aware this is subject to change as conditions related to COVID-19 change. Thank you for your understanding.
While we are a Georgia-based provider, due to changes in state law to address COVID-19 and mental health needs, Whole Mind Psychotherapy is able to provide video sessions to patients in both Georgia and Florida. Click Here for more information on this matter.