Telehealth, Telemedicine, & Now, Teletherapy Comes Into Its Own
A view from a Community Behavioral Health Center
Here in New Hampshire, people pride themselves on their frugal ways and desire to live their lives with freedoms most typically associated with low taxation and small government. It’s interesting to see how, suddenly, technology has made available a host of ways for us to connect and get our work done while leading our lives with the freedoms we choose to pursue. Of course, there are plenty of people who need healthcare, and a pandemic can make it difficult to show up in person for treatment when a viral plague swirls around our heads.
Yet, for many people, even without the threat of Covid-19, it’s difficult to show up for medical treatment. Telemedicine and telehealth have been available prior to the virus gripping us in its teeth, yet on the mental health/behavioral health side of the healthcare equation, teletherapy is just coming into its own. For the first time for many behavioral health clinicians here in New Hampshire, offering therapy services via telephone and online video is as novel an experience as the coronavirus.
Working at West Central Behavioral Health has been an eye-opening experience for me as I’ve watched this non-profit community mental health center quickly make a turn toward embracing the latest technology of the day and getting on board with Zoom and other means of communicating with clients. And clients have responded positively.
One client was quick to write in about the fact that she was not able to visit her therapist because she was undergoing chemotherapy, and a trip to the clinic was simply out of the question. Yet, she needed help with her medication schedule, and her anxiety levels. She let us know that speaking with her therapist by phone turned out to be a great experience. It was easy access and simple to converse.
Another client let us know that being able to access her therapist via teletherapy has been “huge.” She had worked in public safety and knew many people who were not able to get to a mental health clinic, though they needed to desperately. Now, she’s excited to know teletherapy is among the offerings of community mental health centers in New Hampshire. And teletherapy is helping her, too.
And a third client, whose child has cystic fibrosis and is particularly susceptible to infection in or out of a pandemic, has found teletherapy to be a powerful and positive way for both mother and child to speak with a therapist. Home schooling has been great for them, but accessing mental health services has proven to be a real challenge until teletherapy arrived on the scene.
It’s interesting that access is the issue all of these clients honed in on. In a state like New Hampshire, where rural populations often don’t have easy access to public transportation, but they do have cell phones, teletherapy by phone can be a boon to their continued good mental health. And as people have the technology, or as public libraries re-open so people can access public computers, teletherapy by video is also making itself known and felt as a viable treatment tool.
Similarly, and as providers to vulnerable and marginalized populations, community mental health centers have a responsibility to reach all sectors of society. When a client can’t come to the clinic, the clinician often goes to visit the client. Yet, when a pandemic arrives, the health of both client and clinician come into play. With physical distancing a necessity to ensure the virus is not passed along, what else but teletherapy is a reasonable alternative? Unless we can quickly develop some other solution, teletherapy is our answer.
In fact, this makes me think of the parallels between our use of our own brains and of current technology. It was once thought we only used 10% of our brains, but that proved to be a myth. In fact, we use the majority of our brain throughout any given day. If we flick a finger, we’ve used our brain. Written a sentence, the same is true. Thought a thought, yup, our brain made it happen. Painted a picture, we can thank our gray matter for the creative moment. It should be the same with technology.
Right now, thanks to many brains that have been hard a work for years, we have technology that offers us tools to access one another in a multitude of ways online, by phone, and by video. It’s time to use more of the technology available to us to help more and more people than ever before. For the elder housebound person struggling with depression, a visit with a therapist by phone or video can be a welcome relief. For someone incapacitated by an accident, or who has a physical disability that won’t allow for travel, connecting with a therapist for a few minutes can be an important step forward. For someone with severe mental illness, a telephone check in by a social worker to find out if s/he has had a good meal that day can be a lifesaving event. And for a parent with children who can’t leave them home alone to visit a clinic, teletherapy may well be the only way of the future.
As one client said so clearly, “teletherapy by phone with my therapist has been huge for me.”
Now, the New Hampshire frugality piece kicks in. As a cost saving measure, connecting by phone or video with your therapist, psychiatrist, or social worker offers immediate reductions in time and money. With teletherapy, there’s no need to pay for gas if you have a car, or find other forms of transportation if you don’t. The time it takes for client and clinician to drive to and from a clinic can become a thing of the past. Missing a scheduled appointment due to a snowstorm or a sick child can become a thing of the past. Even children seem to enjoy teletherapy given their affinity and comfort level with computers. In all, teletherapy adds up to considerable savings plus ready access to mental health care when it’s needed.
Here we are, in the middle of a three-month teletherapy experiment, now realizing how beneficial it can be. Let’s continue to make our voices heard across the State, and around the nation, that teletherapy should be here to stay. And that our political leaders should lobby for its survival and enhancement as time moves forward. The future is now, and teletherapy is here. Let’s embrace it for good.
The writer is director of development and community relations for West Central Behavioral Health, the community mental health center for the Upper Valley and Sullivan County, NH. West Central is dedicated to offering a wide range of specialized services for individuals of every age who are struggling with mental and behavioral health disorders. West Central provides a full continuum of care, including outpatient, emergency, case management, residential and continuing care services for people of all ages with mental illness and substance use disorders, regardless of ability to pay. For more information, Click Here, or visit https://www.wcbh.org.