Telemental Health Approaches for Trauma Survivors

Abstract

The past couple of decades have witnessed a veritable explosion of technology development and services with nearly ubiquitous uptake of innovative electronic products. In fact, today more than 50% of the earth’s population has access to the Internet, and there are more mobile phone subscriptions than there are people on the planet (ITU 2020, http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx). As these technologies continue to transform our everyday lives, their potential to address the tremendous unmet mental healthcare needs of trauma survivors is also beginning to be realized through innovative telemental health (TMH) approaches. In this chapter, we define TMH and discuss its potential and challenges in mental healthcare for trauma survivors. Three TMH approaches that have been applied to the treatment of individuals with trauma-related mental health issues are described and the evidence for each is reviewed. These approaches include clinical video-teleconferencing (CVT), web-based interventions, and mobile phone-based interventions. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of future directions of TMH for helping those affected by trauma.