Racial and ethnic disparities in telemental health usage among veterans.

Abstract

It is essential for mental health services to be equitably accessible and utilized. The literature on mental health service utilization has, to date, been focused largely on in-person care. This quality assurance project evaluated telemental health (TMH) utilization rates among Veterans by race and ethnicity. Following the rapid expansion of TMH in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we also explored whether TMH use across racial and ethnic Veteran groups changed after the onset of the pandemic. Using chi-square analyses, we compared the observed race and ethnicity of Veterans receiving TMH to the expected race and ethnicity of Veterans receiving TMH, controlling for rurality. We found that TMH was not being utilized by all racial and ethnic groups within the Veteran population as would be expected, both before and during the pandemic. Improvements were noted during the pandemic when much of outpatient mental health care was converted to telehealth. The strengths and limitations of this project, recommendations for TMH, and potential future directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).