Telehealth and the Treatment of Depression

Telehealth

Telehealth has provided an innovative solution that helps healthcare professionals and patients overcome obstacles of time and space. From lowering costs to opening doors for more immediate care, telehealth is changing the way healthcare is received. Moreover this trend is only expected to continue and rise as more healthcare facilities around the world implement telehealth approaches. The reason for this trend is simple, and this paper will show what that reason is: healthcare professionals and patients benefit from Telehealth because it improves the quality of care and its delivery.

The first reason telehealth helps in healthcare is that it can lower follow-up costs for many individuals who struggle to pay for in-office visits. For instance, telehealth provides patients with fast and sufficient service via telephone: “an automated telephone follow-up system that calls, identifies, and interviews clients is an alternative method for monitoring patients that may be both reliable and cost-effective” (Alemi, Stephens & Parran, 2014, p. 180). Treatment outcomes can be more easily monitored using telehealth, which reduces the cost of having to make in-person visits to a healthcare provider. It also removes the time, hassle, energy and cost involved in traveling to and from a healthcare facility. For people in rural areas, it can save hours of travel time and the associated costs (American Health Information Management Association, 2017).

Not only is telehealth a cost-saving approach to healthcare, but it can be particularly helpful when it comes to providing services for those dealing with depression. Telehealth provides the depressed population with a way to make toll-free calls in their time of need. Using automated telephone screening, digital voice recordings, and touch-tone responses to evaluate symptoms of depression, patients can receive the treatment they need in a fast and easy manner (Baer et al., 1995). This approach is helpful as shown by Baer et al. (1995) who conducted a study and found that “the majority of callers scoring positive for depression had received no previous treatment for depression” and that 3/4ths of those who completed the screening found it to be helpful (p. 1943).

The final proof that telehealth is helpful in healthcare is that it is becoming more and more ubiquitous: healthcare providers around the world recognize the opportunity it gives for offering easy access to care. With technology advancing, telehealth will also advance because of the equipment and tools that are being designed to help detect urgent medical concerns: “As adoption of technology proliferates around the world, telemedicine will undoubtedly become more ubiquitous” (Bashshur, Puskin & Silva, 1995, p. 337). Telehealth adoption can streamline healthcare processes, evaluations, check-ups, and more. It eliminates the need for patients to struggle with obstacles of time and space that can prevent them from obtaining care. It improves access to care for people who otherwise might not ever book an appointment because of the hassle of making an in-person visit.