“What mental health needs are more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation,” Glenn Close, American Actress.
You are always judged when you voice your mental and emotional problems, even today. This is no secret that one of the major setbacks of the Covid -19 pandemic is Mental Illness along with other physical complications. It changed the lifestyle of people, but it is taking time for them to adapt themselves to the new normal mentally. The world is at present going through a mental health crisis that needs to be attended to. But, reaching a huge number of patients physically is a challenge for the psycho-therapists.
Therefore, they have come up with the concept of telepsychiatry. Let us understand in delta how it works.
What is telepsychiatry?
Before we know how telepsychiatry functions, let us first know what does this term means? Telepsychiatry is the application of telemedicine in the field of psychiatry. It is defined as the use of electric communication and information technology to support clinical psychiatric care from a distance.
How has telepsychiatry helped hospitals and physicians?
We all are aware that mental health problems lead to some or other physical health issues, and we have to visit the hospitals. According to data, around 80 percent of the individuals seeking mental health treatment in the US visit hospitals and general physicians rather than going to a psychiatrist.
To match this number, telepsychiatry is a boon for hospitals. When a patient visits a hospital with a mental illness, through telepsychiatry it becomes easy for the doctors to connect them to a psychiatrist, counselor, or therapist. They are just a call away.
In telepsychiatry, you can also have a video interaction with your doctors. With the proper equipment, a wifi connection, or any active internet connectivity, you can get connected to your psychiatrist. Since its inception, over the years, this trend has become very popular, especially amongst the younger generation. Talking can be a solution to many of your problems. If not telepsychiatry, TRIP Treatment: Psychedelic Renaissance is another way for you to get treated.
Creating the right environment
While catering to a patient through a virtual medium, you need to create a completely comfortable environment for them to speak as a clinical psychologist.
Website Manner
Though the impact of telepsychiatry is as good as conducting an in-person session with the patient, in-person interaction makes a difference. However, during the pandemic era, since this is not possible, psychologists have to be proactive while conducting a telepsychiatric session.
Creating a website manner is giving a particular comfort zone for the patients to speak their heart out. They can ask questions which they would usually avoid answering in an in-person session.
To get that zone, clinical psychiatrists can consider using code words, some signs to comfort the patients. The psychiatrists should also be attentive to certain signs and body language, which shows that the patient is uncomfortable talking at that moment, or someone has encroached the room, etc. After considering all these factors only, a patient will be able to discuss the issue openly.
Affordability and Accessibility
The first thing that strikes you when your diagnosis says that you are suffering from a mental health issue is, “I do not want to spend more on this. I can heal this myself.”
Therefore, for any clinical psychologist, one thing to take care of is the fees they charge for each patient. Keeping the rates of your services affordable is a major factor for the patients to seek support from you.
So practices or companies offering virtual behavioral care must prioritize ensuring their behavioral care services can be covered by patients' insurance and ensure that their clinician availability is always one step ahead of demand. Practices or companies should also prepare clinicians with best practices to shorten the learning curve for transitioning their care to the virtual world.
Moreover, you should also be available to talk wherever your patient demands. Our accessibility should be easy. Since the person is not able to see you in person, all that matters to them is your virtual presence by their side as and when they need a psychologist.
Conclusion
The pandemic has forced us to move things in the virtual world. This is now affecting, and people are falling prey to mental health conditions like depression and anxiety disorders. It is difficult to identify them. Most patients avoid discussing these problems even with their families. They fear people judging them.
Telepsychiatry is one medium of communication. You can discuss your mental health issues with an expert from the field and cure them, even without anyone knowing about it.
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