Mental health providers equipped to provide telemental health will be better positioned to cope with future pandemics and public health crises, advised researchers in a study published in JMIR Mental Health.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, many mental health professionals resorted to telemental health,” researchers wrote, “not without some aversion, feeling that ‘they had no other choice.’”

In light of the immediate curbing of in-person care and the quick pivot to telehealth among providers due to COVID-19, researchers in Italy looked at the state of research into telemental health as well as patient satisfaction with mental health services provided remotely. The study also surveyed mental health providers on their views of telemental health.

The study identified an accumulation of evidence on telemental health since the year 2000, according to researchers. Studies, most of which were based in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, provided abundant and robust evidence supporting telemental health interventions for depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorders.

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Meanwhile, surveys of mental health providers—174 from Italy and 120 from other countries spanning 5 continents—confirmed a massive shift from in-the-room care to telemental health after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers reported. Clinicians tended to view telemental health with skepticism, however, and said they felt neither sufficiently trained nor satisfied with remote care delivery. Compared with clinicians in Italy, providers elsewhere expressed more positive views of telemental health.

The study also found that patients would be just as satisfied with telemental health compared with face-to-face care if technology-related issues were minimized. Those findings stemmed from a meta-analysis of 29 studies involving a total 2143 participants.

“It is advisable that mental health services should become equipped with telemental health to increase the ability to efficiently cope with public health crises,” researchers wrote. “We believe that this does not necessarily contradict the preferences of both clinicians and patients for in-person, meaningful therapeutic rapports.”

Reference

Mazziotti R, Rutigliano G. Tele-mental health for reaching out to patients in a time of pandemic: provider survey and meta-analysis of patient satisfaction. JMIR Ment Health. 2021;8(7):e26187. doi: 10.2196/26187