Mental Health and COVID-19: Using Technology Today to Accelerate the Curve on Access and Quality Tomorrow

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based on material published in JMIR Mental Health and is available as an open access article. As interest in and use of telehealth during the COVID19 global pandemic increase, the potential of digital health to increase access and quality of mental health is becoming clear. Although the world today must flatten the curve of the spread of the virus, we argue that now is the time to accelerate and bend the curve on digital health. Increased investments in digital health today will yield unprecedented access to high quality mental health care. Focusing on personal experiences and projects from our diverse authorship team, we share selected examples of digital health innovations while acknowledging that no single piece can discuss all the impressive global efforts past and present. Exploring the success of telehealth during the present crisis and how technologies like apps can soon play a larger role, we discuss the need for workforce training, high quality evidence, and digital equity, among other factors critical for bending the curve further. This course on using technology to deliver quality mental health care is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of using technology to treat mental health clients. The course material includes a literature review of interventions. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. Authors: Torous and Rauseo Ricupero, Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding using todays technology to deliver quality mental health care. Specifically, a professional will: Identify the benefits of digital mental health tools as a response to the current crisis and for the future Recognize the barriers for equitable access to digital mental health tools, including socioeconomic factors and the development of appropriate apps Summarize the benefits of increasing access and quality of digital mental health tools Citation: Torous J, Jan Myrick K, Rauseo Ricupero N, Firth J Digital Mental Health and COVID19: Using Technology Today to Accelerate the Curve on Access and Quality Tomorrow JMIR Ment Health 2020;7(3):e18848. http://mental.jmir.org/2020/3/e18848/