According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, around 10 million Americans have a severe mental disorder. In addition, nearly 60 percent of people experiencing a mental health condition have not sought treatment for their symptoms and may be in danger of worsening their situation.
When it comes to behavioral and mental health conditions, timely diagnosis is critical. Patients need access to experts who can offer prompt guidance and help them avoid more severe illnesses and complications. To address this issue, telemedicine has become an innovative care delivery method that enables patients to receive rapid medical diagnoses and treatments when they need them most.
Mental health professionals can provide interventions remotely to improve patient outcomes. By offering virtual consults, healthcare practitioners can assess and diagnose patients at a distance without traveling. The benefits include faster access to expert assistance and greater convenience for both patients and clinicians.
While there are many reasons to use telehealth as part of your practice, optimizing your behavioral health practice should be one of them, and here’s why.
Improve Access to Care
Telehealth will play an essential role in enabling people to access mental health services at home. Patients with mobility or transportation issues may have limited options to travel to a doctor’s office or clinic, or simply be reluctant to do so if they are worried about exposure to others.
Telehealth offers these patients the chance to receive medical care in a safe environment – their own homes. With videoconferencing, telehealth providers facilitate comfortable, relaxed communication for patients.
With SecureVideo’s videoconferencing system, patients can feel more comfortable discussing their struggles and experiences behind a video screen rather than sitting in physical proximity to a provider. This helps alleviate issues such as anxiety and embarrassment about sharing personal information.
Provide Services Where Primary Care Is Limited
More than 4.5 million US adults don’t get needed mental health services because of these services’ limited accessibility or availability. Telehealth, however, benefits patients seeking immediate attention, particularly those experiencing acute episodes of severe distress and anxiety disorders.
Most patients must rely on other healthcare professionals to help manage their mental health conditions. Despite that, some areas lack full coverage of mental health specialists, resulting in delays in inpatient treatment. Because of this, telehealth can make essential contributions toward addressing the shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists available to people living in rural, underserved communities.
Telehealth provides patients far away from major urban areas access to specialized healthcare providers. The providers can provide timely and effective mental health assessments using live or recorded video sessions with this advantage.
Enhance Patient Safety
While telehealth is generally regarded as a safe way to deliver care, mental health care professionals should ensure that the telehealth system is designed to reduce risks when patients receive care.
Telehealth systems must be implemented appropriately to offer excellent performance, from minimizing health risks to ensuring privacy and confidentiality.
Telehealth offers several advantages over traditional face-to-face encounters for patient safety, including:
- Provides continuous monitoring of patients during mental health treatment.
- Facilitates remote patient monitoring.
- Reduces risk of exposure to infectious diseases (e.g., COVID‐19).
- Allows patients to remain at home while receiving care.
Streamline and Improve Clinical Outcomes
As behavioral health management becomes increasingly complex, specialty consultations through telehealth can help facilitate continuity of care by keeping patients informed about medications and other treatment plans. It also allows patients who cannot leave their homes to receive the necessary medical attention.
Using mobile devices and tablets to collect data helps streamline the process of delivering care. Remote monitoring allows providers to monitor patient responses and adjust treatments accordingly. This may improve clinical outcomes as patients can get personalized attention and gain support sooner than waiting until they visit the clinic.
A Primer for Counseling Psychologists
Counselors are integral in providing comprehensive and humane medical care that includes prevention, early detection, education, medication management, counseling, and referrals for treatment purposes. Although some counselors practice in hospitals, others work in outpatient settings or provide services over the phone. Telepsychology can bridge this gap between hospitalized clients and those served in community settings.
Telepsychology has a profound effect on both clinical practice and research in psychology. The Internet has helped psychologists develop new ways of delivering psychological therapies using electronic media. Some popular approaches include internet-based CBT (iCBT).
Studies show that patient-driven iCBT may have a greater effect on anxiety, depression, and mood disorders.
In another study, the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered via telemedicine has the same outcome results as in-person treatment.
Some psychologists also offer videoconferencing to connect family members with individuals diagnosed with a severe illness or disability. Video conferences allow them to see their loved ones and get emotional support in real-time.
Start Telehealth Therapy Today!
Telehealth is not just a buzzword; it’s here and now. New technologies have paved the way for the development of advanced videoconferencing systems that allow providers across great distances to connect securely and in real-time.
You can capitalize on these advances to enhance your reputation as an expert in behavioral healthcare. You can use telehealth safely and securely, allowing you to reach out to more patients than ever before.
If you haven’t considered providing behavioral healthcare through telehealth, there are many reasons why you should start today. You could be saving lives and improving well-being.
Ensure Your Telehealth Success
At SecureVideo, we help clinics and behavioral therapists launch successful telehealth programs from the first day. Our experienced team will guide you every step of the way, so you’ll always stay compliant and up-to-date with all regulations and guidelines.
Our HIPAA-compliant telehealth services allow you to:
- Increase access to behavioral health care.
- Reach patients outside of regular working hours.
- Enables secure communication
- Improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Our telehealth platforms are easy to configure and deploy and are built for scalability. They let you conduct online therapy sessions and communicate seamlessly with any device, anywhere. We also build custom apps to expand functionality such as scheduling appointments, uploading reports, sending emails, etc.
From patient-centric sessions to family therapy, our telehealth technology supports different communication modalities to practice online therapy sessions in a private space.
We’re passionate about helping other clinicians take advantage of technology to serve more patients. We want to save lives by offering innovative, high-quality healthcare via telehealth. Contact us today and join our mission to make online mental health services work for everyone.