Experiential family therapy interventions delivered via telemental health: A qualitative implementation study.

Telemental health is a ubiquitous form of treatment that has been around for over a half-century, but there remains minimal research on videoconferencing and relational therapy. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify how telemental health therapists would implement experiential interventions for children, couples, and families. Twelve trainees (n = 12) that participated in a yearlong telemental health practicum were prompted on three experiential interventions to understand how students adapt relational interventions for telemental health delivery.

Competency-based training in the supervision of relational telemental supervision.

Supervision has long been considered essential to developing effective mental health practice, especially among COAMFTE accredited training programs. But with telemental health rapidly being accepted as a standard treatment medium for couple and family therapy, there is little guidance about how to supervise clinicians who are engaged in telemental health practice. This paper presents an important step toward increasing the effectiveness of the supervision of therapists who are delivering relational therapies online through the identification of relational competencies unique to this delivery medium.

A pilot study of a family systems oriented telemental health model in rural Brazil.

There are large disparities in access to mental health care, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Telemental health is a viable solution to reducing these disparities, but quality research demonstrating its effectiveness is needed. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility of a telemental health approach in a rural region of Brazil.

Collaborative Care at a Distance: Student Therapists' Experiences of Learning and Delivering Relationally Focused Telemental Health.

There is mounting evidence that telemental health is an effective delivery method for treating a variety of mental, emotional, behavioral, and relational health problems. While many of the therapeutic skills leading to the effectiveness of face-to-face treatments are transferable, the effectiveness of telemental health requires unique skills. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine the experience of learning how to use videoconferencing to deliver relationally focused mental health care.

Global proofing a collaborative care telemental health intervention in Brazil.

Rural proofing ensures that policies, practice guidelines, strategies, and techniques can be applied to rural populations with approximately equal benefit as what would be obtained in urban areas. Extending this concept internationally, the authors argue the importance of global proofing mental health strategies developed in well-resourced, high-income areas in order to determine their appropriateness in areas that have resource poverty such as middle- and low-income countries. An example is used to illustrate both rural and global proofing.

Global Mental Health in Action: Reducing Disparities One Community at a Time.

There are great disparities in mental health care around the world. Traditional approaches to mental health care have not been found to be transferrable to many parts of the world and are inadequate to address these disparities. Unconventional approaches are needed that match the traditions of care-seeking and care-giving within the communities where they are delivered.

Rural experiences with mental illness: through the eyes of patients and their families.

People living in rural areas are often faced with multiple, complex, and seemingly insurmountable barriers to receiving appropriate treatment for mental health problems. Some of the barriers identified in the research literature include inaccessibility to mental health providers, stigma, and limited resources in the community. Despite existing data regarding rural patients and their families, little is known about their lived, personal experiences.

Training for collaboration: collaborative practice skills for mental health professionals.

The purpose of the study was to identify skills that mental health practitioners need for successful collaborative practice in medical settings. Known experts in the field of collaborative health care completed a survey designed to elicit their suggestions about what is needed for successful collaborative care practice. Through qualitative analysis, a set of 56 skills was developed.

Finding the heart of medical family therapy: a content analysis of medical family therapy casebook articles.

In an effort to identify the essential ingredients of medical family therapy, a content analysis of 15 peer-reviewed case studies in medical family therapy was conducted. The case studies were published from 1996 to 2007 in Families, Systems, & Health. Through a qualitative content analysis, three main themes emerged that describe the essence of the practice of medical family therapy: (1) The patient's multisystemic experience of disease, (2) treatment is about caring, not just caregiving, and (3) elevating the patient as collaborator in the care team.

Telehealth and rural depression: physician and patient perspectives.

Due to a shortage of mental health professionals (MHPs) in rural areas, primary care physicians (PCP) are often the first, and in many cases, the only providers of depression treatment for rural individuals. This study was an investigation of the acceptability of behavioral telehealth to PCPs and patients with depression as a way of making mental health treatments more accessible to rural patients. The researchers conducted 10 focus groups across rural Nebraska with PCPs and patients they had treated for depression.

Events and experiences impacting the development of clinical self confidence: a study of the first year of client contact.

Research was conducted to identify the events and experiences influencing the development of clinical self-confidence during the first year of client contact for beginning marriage and family therapists. Thirty-nine recent graduates of a master's degree training program participated in a semistructured interview in which they were asked to describe the influences on their clinical self-confidence. Through qualitative analysis, four event and experience categories emerged as exerting the most influence on confidence at this stage of professional development: supervision, contact with clients, contact with peers, and personal life stress.