The days of physically visiting a doctor to obtain a prescription are long gone. Telehealth services are commonplace since the COVID-19 epidemic. Even the United States’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) evidence-based resource guide series discuss the practical approaches to treating mental health illnesses through telemedicine addiction treatment.
For severe mental illness (SMI), substance use disorder (SUD), and severe emotional disturbance (SED), telehealth is an effective technology across the continuum of care, including screening and assessment, treatment, medication management, behavioral therapies, case management, recovery support, and crisis services.
Mental Health and Telehealth Service
Mental illness remains a significant concern in the United States. These conditions may cause people to miss work and life experiences. It’s not just about convenience, Telehealth services dramatically enhance patient confidentiality by not directly exposing the identity of one patient to another as it happens while physically visiting a health care office. Telemedicine addiction treatment can assist by removing some of these barriers. Patients can now consult with a mental health professional remotely via live video.
Patients from areas facing a shortage of mental health professionals can use these tools to speak with a licensed professional without having to travel long distances. If their loved ones or colleagues fail to recognize their mental illness, they can receive care quickly. There are a variety of ways to provide telehealth support:
- Text message interventions remind clients to take their medication or to even communicate quickly and efficiently.
- Health apps remind clients to take medications and communicate medication use information to their healthcare provider through a client portal. Clients can get information and adherence help over the phone from medical professionals for prescribed medication for SMI and SUD.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) via telehealth is goal-oriented psychotherapy that seeks to modify an individual’s thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors. CBT programs use various cognitive and behavioral techniques in group and individual settings while remaining structured. Through cognitive restructuring, CBT may help clients re-evaluate their negative thought patterns, including overgeneralizing or catastrophizing adverse outcomes. CBT techniques help clients address traumatic experiences and develop more effective thought patterns and realistic perspectives on the trauma.
- Telehealth-based Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) focuses on alleviating mental illness symptoms such as PTSD caused by traumatic events such as child maltreatment, sexual assault, and military-related stressors.
- Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy via telehealth is a type of CBT that focuses on helping individuals confront their fears from traumatic experiences. PE has effectively treated survivors of varied traumas, including combat, accidents, and disasters.
- Telehealth solutions provides recovery support for people in SUD treatment. Some peer recovery support services use technology-assisted support groups to engage clients, conducting regular check-ins over telephone or videoconference.
- Telehealth services for mental health are an effective strategy for suicide prevention and resolving acute mental health and substance use crises, as well as for reducing psychiatric hospital bed overutilization, inappropriate use of emergency departments, inappropriate use of law enforcement resources, and fragmentation of mental health care.
Conclusion
Telehealth solutions increase individuals’ and communities’ access to trained service providers and evidence-based practices that may otherwise be unavailable to them. When geographic barriers like transportation, mobility, and obligations like employment and caretaking responsibilities prevent individuals from accessing services, telehealth fills a treatment gap and improves health outcomes.
Some clients may prefer to receive benefits wholly or partially from telehealth. An overall treatment plan that includes a hybrid of telehealth and in-person services may be beneficial for those who have cost-effective treatment along with confidentiality.
What do we offer?
Due to access issues, many people in the United States fail to get adequate medical, psychiatric, and behavioral care. To address the ongoing problem of opiate, alcohol, and other mood-altering substance abuse and dependency, Addictionology Center has designed a telehealth psychology-centric telemedicine addiction treatment program. The Center’s program offers holistic behavioral health and drug misuse treatment for people whose circumstances make it impossible to attend conventional treatment programs.
We aim to provide clients with knowledge, insight, coping mechanisms, and necessary support networks via telemedicine platforms. Our program maintains long-term recovery and improves clients’ quality of life via teleconferencing through an encrypted platform.
