Use of telemental health (TMH) – delivery of behavioral and mental health services via synchronous or asynchronous technology – has rapidly increased in recent years. As demand for virtual services increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, supply increased to respond. The pandemic required a mindset shift—among both patients and clinicians. And while clinicians responded by shifting more care to virtual platforms, the literature and subject matter experts we spoke with indicate that many clinicians lag in their pursuit of training to facilitate this transition to TMH. As a result, greater attention is now being paid to how clinicians are trained and what supportive tools they need to effectively conduct TMH services.
This project sought to examine the current state of and emerging trends in training for clinicians providing TMH services. This report joins together existing literature on clinical training for TMH professionals with takeaways from a moderated discussion between experts representing clinicians, providers, payers, academic researchers, certification institutions, and more. It outlines the key competency frameworks upon which these approaches can be built, emphasizes new methods for training and upskilling TMH clinicians, and discusses important roles that health care stakeholders play in advancing this field.
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Project Sponsors
We would like to thank Point32Health for funding this work. We also want to acknowledge and thank the following individuals at Point32Health for their support and input throughout the project:
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Natalie Belkin, MD, Behavioral Health Medical Director
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Karen Fischbach, Strategic Business Lead
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William Harlan, MEd, Director, Clinical Programs & Strategy
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Jason Parent, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, Director, Clinical Innovation
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Elizabeth Ross, MD, Senior Medical Director, Behavioral Health
NEHI wishes to thank the subject matter experts for their participation, advice, and counsel. They are:
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Raymond Barrett, LMHC, LPC, Founder and CEO, Telehealth Certification Institute
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Emily Bernstein, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Staff Psychologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Oscar Bukstein, MD, MPH, Vice Chair of Psychiatry, Director, Outpatient Psychiatry Service, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
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Alisa B. Busch, MD, MS, Chief Medical Information Officer & Director, Clinical Performance Measurement & Health Services Research, McLean Hospital; Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
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R. Dakota Carter, MD, EdD, Medical Director, Aetna
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Sandra M. DeJong, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance
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Bradford Felker, MD, Professor Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine
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Jen Magaziner, MBA, MPH, Vice President of Digital Health, Boston Children’s Hospital
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Marlene M. Maheu, PhD, Executive Director, Telehealth.org
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Matt Mishkind, PhD, SHRM-SCP, Deputy Director, Johnson Depression Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Chair, Telemental Health Special Interest Group, American Telemedicine Society
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Steve North, MD, MPH, FAAFP, Vice President of Medical Operations, Eleanor Health
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Jay Ostrowski, MA, LPC/S, NCC, ACS, BC-TMH, CEO, Adaptive Telehealth
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Taft Parsons, MD, Vice President and Chief Psychiatric Officer, CVS/Aetna
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Corbin Petro, Former CEO, Eleanor Health
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Dee Shaligram, MD, Boston Children’s Hospital
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Katharine H. Wibberly, PhD, Director, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center
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Sabine Wilhelm, PhD, Director, Center for Digital Mental Health, Massachusetts General Hospital
Additional Acknowledgments
The NEHI team would like to thank the following individuals for their significant time and contributions to this research and report: Robert Seifert, MPA; Arianna Kelley; and Rachel Lee.
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