Abstract
Before COVID-19, most therapists had concerns about telepsychology, and only treated patients in person. During the COVID-19 lockdown, patients still needed therapy, but in-person therapy sessions became unsafe. The current study measured how many therapists are using online therapy before vs. during COVID-19, how much training they have received, and their knowledge about legal restrictions on using telepsychology. A sample of 768 U.S.A. mental health professionals completed a 29-item online survey. Results show that before COVID-19, most therapists only saw their patients in person (e.g., at the therapists office), but during the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all therapists used a wide range of telecommunication technologies to communicate with their quarantined patients, including texting, telephones, video conferences, and even virtual reality. According to within-subject related samples comparisons, 39% of survey respondents used telepsychology before COVID-19, vs. 98% during COVID-19 (χ2 = 450.02, p< 0.001). Therapists reported high treatment effectiveness using telepsychology (7.45 on 0–10 scale). However, overall, on a 0–10 scale, therapists reported a significant increase in feeling burned out during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mean = 3.93 (SD = 1.93) before vs. 6.22 (SD = 2.27) during the pandemic (Z = −18.57, p < 0.001). Although the APA ethics guidelines encourage therapists to use telepsychology with their patients during the crisis, gaps in respondents’ knowledge identify a need for increased specialized training and education. Although the current study showed that virtual reality is rarely used by the therapists surveyed, virtual reality is a promising new telepsychology technology. Billions of dollars are currently being invested in mass producing immersive virtual reality systems. In the future, as networked immersive Virtual Reality becomes more widely available, therapists and patients in physically different locations will be able to “meet” in a shared computer-generated world designed for therapy sessions, potentially including group sessions. Telepsychology and virtual reality have the potential to be increasingly valuable tools to help therapists mitigate the consequences of COVID-19. Research, development and training is recommended.
Highlights
Healthcare is increasingly reliant on rapidly improving computer technology
The current study showed that virtual reality is rarely used by the therapists surveyed, virtual reality is a promising new telepsychology technology
In the current study, we measured whether therapists were using telepsychology so they could safely continue treating their patients during the COVID-19 isolation
Summary
Telepsychology has been successfully implemented in the Veterans Affairs (VA) system in the United States (Godleski et al, 2012; Caver et al, 2020) and remotely supported pain management services (Eaton et al, 2014; Eccleston et al, 2020). In a survey conducted by Glueckauf et al (2018), nearly 40% of clinical psychologist in the USA reported using telepsychology, yet overall, ∼60% never used telepsychology. They found that most clinical psychologists had concerns about telepsychology and only treated patients in person. Over 50% of the psychologists in the survey of Glueckauf et al (2018) were concerned that they needed more skills on how to manage crisis situations during online therapy, and 79% of the therapists in their study had concerns about security, confidentiality, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
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