Rapid Conversion to Telemental Health Services in Response to COVID-19: Experiences of Two Outpatient Mental Health Clinics.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered changes across health care systems, with many sectors seeing significant drops in patient visits. Rapid transition to telemental health (TMH) allowed for the continued delivery of mental health care. Although several guidelines and best practices are available for the methodical development of a TMH service, there are few documented procedures on rapidly converting to fully virtualized services.

Experiences of Mental Health Clinicians and Staff in Rapidly Converting to Full-Time Telemental Health and Work from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The mitigation strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic pushed much of the mental health workforce to rapidly convert to full-time telemental health (TMH). For many people, this occurred in the context of working from makeshift home offices with novel distractions. We describe the results of an online survey of mental health clinicians and staff regarding their experiences in rapidly converting to full-time TMH and work from home (WFH) during COVID-19.

Telemental Health Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Virtualization of Outpatient Care Now as a Pathway to the Future.

The use of telemental health (TMH) has fostered the continued provision of mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately prevented the significant drop in clinical visits as experienced by other health care disciplines. Many health care providers and systems rapidly virtualized care to include visits occurring in what previously were defined as nontraditional locations such as provider and patient homes. Emerging data and reports suggest that this rapid virtualization of mental health services occurred safely and effectively.

Establishing Telemental Heath Services from Conceptualization to Powering up.

Telemental health is a demonstrated and effective aspect of the overall mental health system and considered a standard of care for many treatments. Adoption has not been as robust as expected and failure to properly develop implementation plans is a significant barrier. This article provides an overview of a step-by-step planning process to more effectively implement and sustain telemental health programs.

Technology-Based Mental Health Treatment and the Impact on the Therapeutic Alliance.

Purpose Of Review: Telemental health, which is treatment mediated by technology, is an increasingly common method of delivering mental health care. However, its impact on the therapeutic alliance is unclear. This review examines studies of telemental health and its impact on therapeutic alliance.

Review of Virtual Reality Treatment in Psychiatry: Evidence Versus Current Diffusion and Use.

Purpose Of Review: This review provides an overview of the current evidence base for and clinical applications of the use of virtual reality (VR) in psychiatric practice, in context of recent technological developments.

Recent Findings: The use of VR in psychiatric practice shows promise with much of the research demonstrating clinical effectiveness for conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and phobias, chronic pain, rehabilitation, and addictions. However, more research is needed before the use of VR is considered a clinical standard of practice in some areas.

Evaluating the benefits of a live, simulation-based telebehavioral health training for a deploying army reserve unit.

Telebehavioral health (TBH) has previously been reported as underutilized in the Afghan Theater of Operations despite efforts to expand the number of operational TBH sites. A lack of training on TBH services and equipment was identified as a probable cause. The National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) provided members of the 1972nd Medical Detachment (Combat Stress Control [CSC]) U.

The use of collaboration science to define consensus outcome measures: a telemental health case study.

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of a collaboration science process used to develop recommendations for the field of telemental health (TMH) in the selection of outcome measures that best reflect programmatic impacts. A common use of group development techniques in medicine is the development of clinical guidelines, which typically occurs using one of two methods: the nominal group or the Delphi method. Both processes have been faulted for limited transparency, reliability, and sustainability.

The use of deployable telehealth centers by military beneficiaries to access behavioral healthcare: an exploratory evaluation in American Samoa.

Some U.S. Military Health System (MHS) beneficiaries face unique challenges accessing available behavioral healthcare because of the nature of their occupations, deployments to and permanent duty stations in isolated geographies, and discontinuity of services.

Home-based telemental healthcare safety planning: what you need to know.

Telemental health (TMH) care provided directly to the home is an emerging area of care delivery. TMH care involves awareness of safety issues and adequate safety planning, although detailed practical recommendations for home-based TMH safety planning are absent in the literature. With this article we aim to increase awareness of safety issues associated with home-based synchronous TMH treatment and to discuss recommendations for consistent safety planning that can inform the development of standard operating procedures, emergency protocols, and overall good TMH practice.

Usability and feasibility of smartphone video capabilities for telehealth care in the U.S. military.

The two-way audio/visual capabilities on the latest smartphone platforms bring new possibilities for the delivery of healthcare services to users. Because this technology is so new, the feasibility and the basic usability of the technology need to be evaluated before more research is conducted on its application in the telehealth field. The purpose of this study was to conduct preliminary usability testing of smartphone two-way video capabilities for potential telehealth use for U.

mHealth data security: the need for HIPAA-compliant standardization.

The rise in the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet personal computers, and wireless medical devices, as well as the wireless networks that enable their use, has raised new concerns for data security and integrity. Standardized Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)-compliant electronic data security that will allow ubiquitous use of mobile health technologies is needed. The lack of standardized data security to assure privacy, to allow interoperability, and to maximize the full capabilities of mobile devices presents a significant barrier to care.

The role of intimate relationships, appraisals of military service, and gender on the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms following Iraq deployment.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to examine risk and protective factors for combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms reported by soldiers (n = 2,583) at postdeployment. Positive appraisals of military service related negatively, OR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.

Safety of telemental healthcare delivered to clinically unsupervised settings: a systematic review.

The safety of telemental healthcare delivered to clinically unsupervised settings, such as a personal residence, must be established to inform policy and further the dissemination of telemental health programs. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of safety issues associated with telemental healthcare and, through a systematic literature review, evaluate the safety of telemental healthcare delivered to unsupervised settings. The review resulted in a total of nine studies that specifically evaluated the delivery of telemental healthcare to unsupervised settings.