COVID-19 Changes the Nature of Tele-Mental Health: A Scope Review

Abstract

COVID-19 temporarily removed legal restrictions, institutional hurdles, organizational impediments, and technological barriers to telemental health implementations that allow mental health therapists to apply virtual meeting technologies to serve their patients. Therapists transitioned from an under-appreciated health sub-specialty small business model to essential caregiver status needing management and technological expertise to measure service quality and outcomes. A systematic literature review identified factors essential for mental health workers and organizations transitioning patient therapy models from face-to-face to online support services under pandemic restrictions. This study revealed that management, technology, health services, and legal issues represent four critical areas of e-health research during the pandemic restrictions. This study suggests that telehealth applications require alterations in both the training and skills of the providers and the need for effective management of the telehealth business as digital mental health platforms supplant traditional delivery channels. Post-pandemic telehealth applications should be a blended approach that combines the best experiences from traditional treatments and virtual ones based on the digital skills of patients and healthcare providers.