Research shows that accessing mental healthcare can be difficult. In 2016 alone, over 35% of the 10.4 million adults in the U.S. living with serious mental illness were unable to receive mental health services. This, when coupled with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic —where in-office visits are severely restricted—indicates that mental healthcare could become even more inaccessible.

Fortunately, technology like telehealth can help bridge the widening gap between providers and patients, especially during this period of mandatory social distancing.

Regulatory changes have already been made to encourage this. The government has lifted many privacy, geographic, and originating site restrictions on telehealth. This makes it easier for both therapists and patients to explore telehealth in this period, and possibly after.

With restrictions eased and reimbursements increased to encourage you as a mental health provider to provide increased telehealth care, the next step is to help your patients make an easier transition from in-office to telehealth sessions. To help, we outline below some of these challenges and tips on how to overcome them so more patients will feel comfortable accessing telehealth care.

These challenges include:

● Lack of awareness: Many patients simply aren’t aware that their healthcare provider(s) offers telehealth in any form. Thirty-three percent of respondents in a recent survey are unsure if telehealth services are available to them, and 21% believe they don’t have access.

● Care quality concerns: While telehealth is not particularly new, it hasn’t yet achieved widespread usage. Many patients are apprehensive about the quality of care and support they will receive via telehealth when compared to traditional in-office visits. This concern is not just limited to mental health patients either. A survey reported that about 48.7.% of its respondents (patients) believe that the quality of care received in a telehealth session is lower than that of a doctor’s office visit.

● Financial burden: Medicare and many insurance companies typically have limited coverage for health care accessed via telehealth. Patients either pay completely out of pocket or make co-payments to access virtual mental health care (and other forms of healthcare)— deterring them from trying or relying on it.