Mental Health Treatment Has Been Moving Online: Here’s What This Means For The Industry

Updated on December 6, 2021

When the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out, numerous jobs, professions, businesses, and even entire industries had to stop whatever they were doing. People were told to go home and to stay home until further notice. Millions of people lost their jobs, and millions of others were placed in limbo when their employers told them they were to remain out of work indefinitely so long as the pandemic was raging.   

If you want to consult a psychiatrist but you don’t feel like going out of your home or driving out of state to the nearest practitioner’s clinic, you can check out Prairie Health and other similar sites.  

Many mental health professionals and practitioners have moved some if not all of their practice to online sessions. Here are some of the things that this could do the mental healthcare: 

  1. Therapy Can Be Done Even If The Pandemic Goes On 

Mental health professionals were among those who were initially included in the lockdowns and told they couldn’t open their clinics because they weren’t essential workers or frontliners in the fight against COVID-19. As a result, mental health practitioners and professionals, including those from https://www.prairiehealth.co/  and other similar practices had to find ways to continue to serve their clients and patients. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. When the video calls and group conference apps came out, they found a way to open up ‘virtual clinics’ for their clients and patients.   

Research work was about the methodology and effects of online therapy. They found out that therapy sessions are done virtual or through online platforms. They’re as effective as those which are done by practitioners through face-to-face sessions with their clients or patients. The study covered online therapy sessions done for different mental health conditions.   

Scholarly studies found out that online therapy is just as effective as face-to-face therapy sessions for moderate depression, panic, disorder, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety disorder. It’s also been found to be quite effective for giving therapy to those who have gambling problems. In a way, online therapy sessions have advantages over in-person therapy. 

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  1. There’s Potential To Reach Remote Areas  

The movement of mental therapy treatment towards online therapy sessions also means that there would now be more resources and potential to reach the remote and far-flung areas. Those who live in rural or remote places see no mental health professional. Maybe they lack the money to pay for their services or have no available mental health professionals in their town or county.    

There are a lot of rural or remote areas where there’s no single mental health professional. It might be that not many people see them in those places, or they see no essential need. By this, mental health care providers might have no clients and patients in those places. These circumstances make it quite difficult for them to render their services in rural areas and at the same time earn a decent living to be able to provide for their families and loved ones.   

The growing acceptability of online therapy sessions widens the potential reach of mental health experts. Many may now offer their services to those in need from rural and remote areas. They can earn a living from their paying clients in the cities and urban centers where they live, yet at the same time offer their services to those in need in far-flung places.    

As long as the prospective clients or patients have internet access and can download the app used by the mental health professionals, they can schedule an appointment for online mental health therapy. But they should prep the whole thing to make the most of online mental therapy sessions. It also potentially causes a positive impact on persons in remote places who have mental health needs, issues, concerns, or problems; but don’t have the time to drive to the nearest mental health clinic in the neighboring state.     

  1. Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) Don’t Have To Leave Home 

Another client segment that will immensely benefit from online mental health therapy sessions is those persons with disabilities (PWDs). For obvious reasons, PWDs are among those who have found it hard to go to their mental health therapy sessions in person because they find it hard to travel from home to the practitioner’s clinic.   

It becomes doubly difficult for those PWDs who don’t have their cars and would have to commute going to their doctor’s clinic. With the growing trend of holding online therapy sessions, more mental health professionals can now offer online services. More PWDs would thus have the potential access to book an appointment and suit up for an online therapy session with their doctors.    

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You Don’t Have To See Them In Person Anymore 

Like most other professions, practices, and industries, mental health professionals and practitioners had to find ways to innovate during the height of the pandemic lockdowns. They had to look for ways to continue their therapy sessions with their clients and patients without going to clinics. Holding online therapy sessions was the solution they found. This solution is now moving mental therapy sessions to online interaction. The increased acceptability of online therapy is causing drastic changes in the industry, which will most likely stay and transform the way mental health therapy is done.