Integrating Telemental Health Practice Into Counselor Education Training (eBook)

Heather C. Robertson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
438 Seiten
American Counseling Association (Verlag)
978-1-394-22287-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Counselor educators and instructors need impactful and concise strategies to successfully integrate telemental health (TMH) concepts into an already demanding counseling curriculum. As TMH counseling continues to expand in a post-pandemic era, counselor educators and instructors are charged with the responsibility of training the next generation of professional counselors in ethical and effective TMH counseling. Utilizing the CACREP general curriculum and specialization standards as a framework, Integrating Telemental Health Practice into Counselor Education Training provides counselor educators, doctoral students, and instructors with creative ideas, as well as concrete strategies, to infuse content on TMH into their existing courses and curriculum. Readers will benefit from suggested TMH content for each CACREP standard, as well as TMH teaching tips and sample lessons from contributing authors. Lessons include variations for in-person and online instruction. This book provides the counselor educator or doctoral student with a foundational knowledge of TMH, who needs ideas and activities to seamlessly infuse TMH concepts into their counseling courses and curricula. To purchase print copies, please visit the ACA Store. Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA or any other questions about ACA Publications should be directed to [e-mail]. ACA will provide one complimentary Desk Copy to faculty and other instructors who have adopted an ACA text for their course. To request a Desk Copy, please go to: https://www.counseling.org/publications/overview/product-ordering-information Digital evaluation copies may be requested from Wiley by clicking the link above and completing the details about your institution and course.

Textauszug

1
Understanding Telemental Health Practice

To provide effective instruction on telemental health (TMH), counselor educators and instructors must understand the practice of TMH. This chapter broadly introduces TMH and directs the instructor to additional resources to expand their knowledge.

The practice of telemental health, while not new, has been growing rapidly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that mental health telemedicine services more than tripled between 2015 and 2020 (22.2% to 68.7%), with the most significant increase occurring between 2019 and 2020 (38% to 68.7%). Similarly, telemedicine services for substance use, which had seen little increase between 2015 and 2019, more than doubled between 2019 and 2020 (25.7% to 58.6%; Alvarado, 2021). Consumer awareness of TMH is also growing. In a 2021 survey by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 60% of respondents indicated that they would use telemedicine for mental health care. Respondents who would use TMH increased from 49% in 2020 to 59% in 2021, with 66% of respondents ages 18–29 responding that they would utilize TMH services (APA, 2021). While the onset of COVID-19 and government-issued “stay-at-home orders” may have driven these increases, the practice of TMH has remained steady since those restrictions have been lifted.

Describing TMH

The delivery of counseling services via the internet or other digital systems has had several titles over the years. While I primarily use “telemental health counseling (TMH),” other terms include cyber counseling, e-therapy, internet-based counseling, distance counseling, and digital delivery of counseling services. In a pre-COVID-19 study of 65 state licensure board websites, 42 different terms were utilized to explain the concept of TMH and counseling services, with 19 being more frequently cited. The terms electronic counseling or electronic therapy were the terms most often used among counseling and social work state licensing boards, whereas, among psychology state licensure boards, telehealth was the most prevalent term used (Ostrowski & Collins, 2016).

Different counseling specializations utilize different terms for TMH. The American Mental Health Counselor Association (AMHCA) uses Technology Supported Counseling and Communications (TSCC) in its 2023 Standards of Practice for Clinical Mental Health Counseling and its 2020 Code of Ethics. The American School Counselors Association (ASCA) refers to virtual/distance school counseling in its 2022 Code of Ethics. The National Career Development Association’s (NCDA) 2015 Code of Ethics discusses providing career services online while also referring to the use of technology and social media. The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) initially offered a policy regarding the provision of distance professional services (NBCC, 2016) and uses the terms telemental health, social media, and technology in its Code of Ethics (NBCC, 2023, p. 12).

Readers may note that the definitions used by some professional organizations do not contain the term telemental health (or TMH) when discussing distance services. One possible reason for not utilizing TMH within certain counseling specializations is that not all counseling professions involve mental health counseling. In fact, mental health counseling might not be included in the scope of practice for some specializations. Examples include career counseling, school counseling, and student affairs counseling. While these individuals may address the clients’ and students’ social and emotional needs, their scope of practice may or may not include mental health. Thus, while I use TMH throughout this book for consistency, I will be certain to note when the term may not be appropriate for some specializations.

National and international public health organizations often utilize terminology such as telehealth or telemedicine. Some organizations consider TMH included within telehealth/telemedicine, while others consider it a separate practice. SAMHSA (n.d.) utilizes “telemental health” in some contexts while using “telemedicine” or “telehealth” in other settings. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, n.d.) refers to these services as “telemental health services” and recognizes that different terms, such as “telepsychology” and “telepsychiatry,” may also be utilized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020) references “telemedicine” and “telehealth” but uses “telemental health” when specifically addressing mental health content. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2022) references “services via telehealth and telemedicine” and utilizes the term “digital health.” Along with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), WHO publishes standards for accessibility of telehealth services (WHO-ITU, 2022). Counselor educators and instructors recognize that different terminology for TMH may be used in other contexts.

Defining TMH

Definitions of TMH also vary. One of the earliest groups to define the concept of web counseling was the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), which called it “the practice of professional counseling and information delivery that occurs when client(s) and counselor are in separate or remote locations and utilize electronic means to communicate over the Internet” (NBCC, 1997, p. 3). Professional organizations have created definitions that meet the needs of their profession. For example, when defining Technology Supported Counseling and Communications (TSCC), AMHCA’s broach definition reads:

B.6.a. CMHCs understand that the uses of TSCC in counseling may be considered to fall under the following categories: i.) The use of TSCC as the medium for counseling, also called “telehealth” or “distance counseling,” includes but is not limited to the delivery of counseling by video call (e.g., internet, video chat), by voice (e.g., telephone), by synchronous text (e.g., chat or SMS), or by asynchronous text (e.g., email). ii.) The use of TSCC as an adjunct to counseling (i.e., for arranging, coordinating, or paying for counseling services), including the use of payment processing services that are integrated with TSCC (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, Zelle) for receipt of payment for counseling services. iii.). The use of online “cloud-based” services for the storage of counseling records. iv.) Marketing, educational forums, and other TSCC to include blogs, webpages, chatroom, etc. (AMHCA, 2020, p. 6)

In this AMHCA definition, TSCC includes providing counseling services via technology as well as technological communication, record keeping, and billing accompanying those services.

Federal agencies use other definitions of telehealth and telemedicine. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) states that “telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, health administration, and public health” (HRSA, 2022, para. 1). Since the provision of telehealth services is often a component of insurance billing and medical payment, many organizations utilize the Medicaid definition of telehealth:

Telehealth (or Telemonitoring) is the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide access to health assessment, diagnosis, intervention, consultation, supervision and information across distance. … Telehealth includes such technologies as telephones, facsimile machines, electronic mail systems, and remote patient monitoring devices, which are used to collect and transmit patient data for monitoring and interpretation. (Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services, n.d., para. 13-14).

According to the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), a program of the Public Health Institute, there is no single definition of telehealth, and definitions vary by state jurisdictions and settings. Again, counselor educators and instructors recognize that definitions of TMH may vary based on context and setting.

Prior TMH Knowledge

This book is not intended to provide instructors with initial training in TMH practice but to support the implementation of TMH concepts into counselor education and training. As addressed in the preface, this book assumes a baseline knowledge of TMH practice. This book will regularly utilize terms that are well-known in TMH practice settings but may not be familiar to all readers. The glossary at the end of this book is designed to define these terms, which will be denoted in bold as they appear and support the reader as they progress. Supplemental information may be needed to instruct with confidence and competence on issues of TMH. Before turning to this book, instructors who do not already have a baseline knowledge of TMH are encouraged to obtain this knowledge via training, reading, and practice.

Training

Professional development training programs in TMH have existed for many years. The American Counseling Association (ACA), in conjunction with Counseling Outfitters and Ready Minds, published the book Distance Counseling: Expanding the Counselor’s Reach and Impact in 2007, indicating the early acceptance of TMH...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.3.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Klinische Psychologie
• ISBN-10: 1-394-22287-4 / 1394222874
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-22287-2 / 9781394222872