System-wide implementation of telehealth to support military Veterans and their families in response to COVID-19: A paradigm shift

Abstract

Th e need for the expansion of telehealth services in behavioural health care existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, for a variety of reasons -including technological costs, reluctance of behavioural care providers to adapt telehealth to their practices, privacy concerns, and client aversion to receiving care remotely, among many otherstelehealth has not been widely implemented. However, the COVID-19 crisis, and the accompanying social isolation that ensued, necessitated either a swift transition to telehealth delivery of behavioural health care, the termination of behavioural health care, or the clinician continuing to meet face-to-face with clients, placing both the clinician and the client at increased risk of infection. Shift ing behavioural health care to a telehealth platform seemed the most sensible and, quite candidly, the only option, although many clinics still operate employing the face-to-face modality. In this article, we describe how an emerging national behavioural health care network, Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) in the United States, rapidly and relatively seamlessly transitioned to a full-service, virtual network of outpatient behavioural health clinics when faced with a national crisis.

Reimagined connection: New possibilities for virtual mental health support for children and youth of public safety personnel affected by operational stress injuries

“…21 23 The rapid transi tion to offering telehealth to Veterans and their families in the United States has presented clinicians with an op portunity to examine the potential impact and the effi ciency and effectiveness of behavioural health care. 24 Pre liminary discussions on the use of a telehealth platform suggest that families and Veterans may prefer this mode of therapy, with a predicted increase in demand for tele health services in the near future. 25,26…”