Tele-Mental Health is the professional practice of utilizing remote technologies including telephone conferencing, Zoom calls, Hangouts, Skype Chats, WeChat, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Clubhouse, etc) to deliver services to mental & behavioral health clients.
Professional Tele-Mental Health services are delivered by licensed, regulated, pre-qualified clinical professionals — in is an additional delivery modality utilized by existing professionals in clinical practice.
Many studies are often cited for showing telemental health is effective as a form of in-person care. Such notes suggest effectiveness in treating depression, substance use disorder (SUD), PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and some development disabilities. One reference noted an Adult Outpatient Treatment Program reported a reduction in hospitalizations following use of remote tele-mental interventions.
Effectiveness of Telemental Health Interventions
The definitions used to define effectiveness and even use, however, are changing.
Up until recently, the effectiveness of telemental health was presumed if an existing treatment was delivered successfully (thus documenting effectiveness of delivery, not effectiveness of the treatment itself).
This is no longer widely-accepted as reasonable by the professional community, and much research has since been initiated to investigate clinical effectiveness of telemental health services.
The effectiveness of any new technology is typically measured in order to determine whether it successfully achieves equal or superior objectives over what is currently offered. Research in telemental health—in this article mainly referring to telepsychiatry and psychological services—has advanced rapidly since 2003, and a new effectiveness review is needed.
Sometimes, clinicians have noted that telehealth is actually more effective, perhaps due to its novelty:
Some have noted that with some populations (i.e., children and adolescents), telepsychiatry may be better than in-person services because of the novelty of the interaction, direction of the technology, the psychological and physical distance, and the authenticity of the family interaction.
Quotes are from “The Effectiveness of Telemental Health: A 2013 Review” (full article here)
Telemental health is effective for diagnosis and assessment across many populations (adult, child, geriatric, and ethnic) and for disorders in many settings (emergency, home health) and appears to be comparable to in-person care. In addition, this review has identified new models of care (i.e., collaborative care, asynchronous, mobile) with equally positive outcomes.
Also see “Practice guidelines for videoconferencing-based telemental health – October 2009” (abstract w links)