Rationale
Like many in our communities and many of my colleagues we are working to contribute to “flattening the curve”. By flattening the curve we are referring to slowing the rate of infection within our community to enable our health system a better chance to cope with the impact on our health that SARs-CoV2 (the current coronavirus) creates when it causes CoVID-19. Yes, this means that if we are successful in slowing the rate of infection the health system will be dealing with this disease for many months to come… but it will be better able to cope.
If we are choosing to physically distance ourselves from others (not socially isolate ourselves) then this means that we are making the choice to go out less and to have face-to-face contact with fewer people.
New announcements by government are forcing many into implementing this.
And it is understood that this will impact many businesses and the income of many in the community.
What is Telehealth? And how will this work?
Telehealth uses telecommunications technology to the transmit images, voice and other data between two or more sites to provide health services such as clinical advice, consultation, education and training services. In psychology it means that we conduct therapy using online video conferencing platforms. The platforms that are used have end-to-end encryption which ensure participant confidentiality and privacy.
Research suggests that Telehealth tends to yield similar outcomes as traditional face-to-face therapy consultations. And using video has been found to be better than telephone counselling.
Enhance Life Psychology uses the Zoom platform for Telehealth, also called online video counselling or e-health. At times the reception can be poor, in these cases we will maintain the video but on mute and use the phone for voice communication.
Consultations can be booked online through the booking portal. But emails and phone calls can also be used to schedule a consultation.
