Life in the modern world requires a person to juggle all the time–work, family, sports, and a variety of other life aspects require time, which is scarce. It seems that the inclusion of mental care into this schedule is impossible. In traditional psychiatry, patients need to make appointments several weeks ahead, commute to far-off clinics, take off work and go through the parking and waiting bays. These logistical obstacles are insurmountable to many and as a result, people delay or forsake mental care even when they are in need of it. The virtual mental care will eliminate all these barriers, psychiatric care will be accessible to individuals with hectic schedules and those living in geographically isolated regions. The reason why virtual care is so particularly applicable to busy and remote patients indicates how technology is democratizing access to much-needed mental health care.
Removing Travel and Geographic Constraints
Conventional mental health care is geographically-based. Patients in rural areas who do not find the psychiatrists in their locality have to travel several hours or leave without treatment. Remote employees, international, and military personnel who are away at home have a hard time receiving regular care. Virtual care does not have any such limitations, patients can use licensed therapists and psychiatrists anywhere with internet access and safety. A person in a rural location gets the same quality providers as any other person in a large metropolitan region. A mobile worker carries on treatment without stopping at hotels or offices of clients. Mental health care is no longer accessible due to geographic isolation.
Adjusting the Appointments to Draining Timetables
Working people find it hard to maintain the normal schedules of appointments due to work. Mental health visits entail time off, travel and inflexibility of appointments. This is the situation changed by virtual care. The appointments may be made at lunch times when it is impossible to work in the home offices, in the mornings when it is possible to be early at work or in the night when there is time to work according to the personal schedule. Stiff competition among providers providing flexibility in appointments such as same-day urgent slots in case of acute needs. The online psychiatry and therapy services break the strict time limits that make busy individuals decide between their jobs and mental health support. Many patients also use tools like zocdoc.com to view provider availability and book virtual appointments that fit around demanding work and personal schedules.
Care Continuity in Life Transitions
The situation of life varies, people change jobs, are forced to move, etc.–mental health care is interrupted. Relocation of care to different facilities can take months before care can be reinstated or it is possible that a new facility will have to begin anew with new providers with no knowledge of patient history. The continuity of virtual care is provided by transitions. A patient who was moving to a new state remains with the same provider. A commuting professional does not break in his or her treatment. The result of this continuity of care is better treatment outcomes since care providers are highly familiar with patients throughout life transitions.
Minimizing the Burden of Appointment
Virtual schedules save a lot of all-time dedication. Removing the time of traveling to the meeting-store, which can be 30-60 minutes in case of face-to-face meetings, will make 50-minute virtual sessions take 50 minutes instead of 110+. In time-strapped professionals, this productivity allows them to make more appointments which would otherwise seem impossible. The closer the contact, the better results and allows addressing the problem more quickly than once without such contact in a month, when the contacts were face-to-face and separated by a period of isolation.
Privacy and Discretion
There are patients who would choose virtual appointments since they do not want to be perceived in mental health facilities. Working on appointments at home allows them to have privacy without the need of explaining to colleagues. Such discretion can help individuals who do not want other people to learn of mental health care access the care without reservations.
Technology Implementation to Enhance Continuous Care
Communication between appointments, medication management tools, and built-in psychiatric and treatment services can be done safely using digital platforms, such as ChARM app by TelepsychHealth. These would serve patients who are on the go with technology-based coordination of care.
Conclusion
Mental health care in a virtual way is optimal among busy and distant patients, since it eradicates geographic obstacles, easily fits into hectic schedules, continuity during life transitions, appointment pressure and affordance of privacy. To patients who either lacked time or were unable to access treatment due to the schedules and circumstances they had before, virtual care eliminates the obstacles that used to seem insurmountable. With the further development of technology, virtual mental health care will become more and more an option instead of an alternative option- and mental health treatment will finally become accessible to everybody despite the location and schedule factors.
