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Healthcare Management Grp, partners with Tsori Group of Companies to provide online teletherapy services to the general public.  Online therapy is here to stay, COVID-19 dramatically impacted psychology practice. What does the future of telepsychology hold? 

With telehealth usage rates skyrocketing, experts say resolving concerns around privacy and security, access to care, and payments for providers will be critical as many psychologists adjust to providing care remotely during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Resolving those concerns will be critical to making sure psychologists can continue offering telehealth as demand for mental health services grows, particularly services offered virtually.

Several studies have already proven telepsychology’s effectiveness. And research from Jeanine Turner, PhD, a professor of communication, culture, and technology at Georgetown University who has followed telehealth’s growth over the past two decades, has shown that both patients and providers who use telehealth generally view it favorably.

While the technology and infrastructure for telehealth has been available since the mid-1990s, Turner says the health care industry never would have embraced telehealth fully without a status quo–ending event like a pandemic.

“Last year, within weeks, the system had to absorb all the challenges of wide-scale adoption,” says Turner. “Now, it’s taken off—and there will be no going back.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has basically forced most health care providers to see patients remotely, but psychologists have unique concerns and questions about the virtual delivery of their services. For instance, how might technology impact the therapeutic alliance? And mental health care, by definition, has a strong emotional dimension. Can that really be honored online?

It appears that it can, according to Ashley Batastini, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research at the University of Memphis.