Rationale
Like many in our communities and many of my colleagues we are working towards limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The original aim, to flatten the curve, meant 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. In July 2020 Melbourne experienced increased community transmission, which was, to some extent, expected by researchers. However, the goal is to continue to work to limit the pressure on the medical and hospital system.
We are asked to physically distance ourselves from others (not socially isolate ourselves) and this means that we are make 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 chooses to uses PowerDiary as it’s Practice Management System. There is an inbuilt Telehealth platform, also called online video counselling or e-health. The PowerDiary system means you can click a link, unique to you, that is included in your reminder email. We will use Zoom as a backup for those times when there are technical issues. A link and password to join will be sent to you at the time if we need to switch to Zoom. 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 email and phone can also be used to schedule a consultation.
