Editorial: Transition to Telehealth for Mental Health Clinics: Future Considerations

Abstract

The acute mental health demands during the COVID-19 pandemic galvanized early adoption of telehealth for care delivery in all medical settings. This is even more so for the field of psychiatry. 1 Whether an established telehealth program existed or not, the abrupt lifting of regulations and urgent need for access to care opened the telehealth flood gates. While video visits and telephone visits improved immediate access to care, they simultaneously challenged our ability to structure, organize, educate, operationalize, and track such visits. 1 This swift shift in health care delivery forced providers, health care systems, and patients into a nationwide experiment to learn what works well via telehealth and what does not. The ground-breaking article by Folk et al. 2 focuses on challenges and successes for a new shared phenomenon: the sudden pivot from in-person to video/telephone care. We examine the data collected by this consortium and compare it with our own experience at UPMC Western Psychiatric behavioral health outpatient settings, both academic and rural.