telehealth Archives - Raymond Rupert

COVID 19 Is An Accelerant Of Change: Raymond Rupert patient advocate

Raymond Rupert — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 00:35:18 +0000

COVID 19 is an accelerant of change. Companies and institutions are changing 20 to 25 times faster than before COVID 19.

I took a course at Harvard Medical School about ten years ago. It focused on the use of telehealth technologies in treating mental health disorders. The evidence was presented. It proved that virtual mental health interactions were as effective as face to face meetings.

Coming out of that course, I was convinced that telehealth was an acceptable technology and ready for prime time.

My timing was wrong. By delivering mental health services with a virtual meeting with the patient, it was felt by the traditional institutions to be inappropriate.

And since I had adopted telehealth for my substance use disorder medicine work and in delivering travel health healthcare services by partnering with pharmacists in smaller communities, I was informed that this was not appropriate. I was labelled a disruptor.

The traditionalists will reiterate until their last breath that doctor patient interactions must occur face to face.

Enter COVID19 and that changes dramatically.

Now almost all mental health services are delivered using telehealth. And many patients find it much preferred. As do the doctors.

Raymond Rupert patient advocate and healthcare consultant.

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Telephone Therapy Works: Raymond Rupert patient advocate

Raymond Rupert — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 11:23:55 +0000

For adults with depression, CBT delivered over the phone is as effective at reducing symptoms as CBT delivered face to face. Two trials looking at CBT for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) – one in adults and one in young people – also found no differences in effectiveness. Telephone treatment is cost-effective too: the improvements in quality of life represent good value for money, broadly comparable with face-to-face therapy.

People who receive telephone-delivered therapy are happy to have treatment that way. One interview study looking at depression and anxiety, for example, found that most people were broadly content with it, particularly saying how convenient it was. The trial of CBT for OCD in adults, discussed above, also found comparable and high levels of satisfaction with treatment delivery in either manner.

Post pandemic, it will be essential for health systems to continue to fund phone therapy or zoom therapy as an effective form of therapy for those with psycho-social challenges.

source: AEON magazine Oct 14 2020

Telephone therapy is convenient and it works. Let’s use it more

by Dean McMillan, Penny Bee, Nicky Lidbetter and Beatrice Lukoseviciute

Dean McMillanis professor of clinical psychology at Hull York Medical School and the Department of Health Sciences, University of York.

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