Introduction
The use of technology in the field of healthcare is becoming more and more prevalent. E-therapy is one such technology and it is proposed that this service be added to the services being offered by the UCLA Psychology Clinic.
The clinic provides assessment/testing services and low-fee therapy for families, couples, children, and adults (UCLA, n.d.). It also serves as a research and training center for diagnostics and psychotherapy. The clinic therapists use treatment methods and approaches that are validated by research and that correspond to the clients’ individual needs.
With the addition of e-therapy to the clinic’s services, it is aimed that the clinic’s clients will be provided with more options with regards to their healthcare and it will also provide the clinic’s healthcare professionals with opportunities for exploring the effectiveness of e-therapy as a treatment method. In this regard, this paper would provide a description of e-therapy, its impact on the quality of care, and its impact on the organization. With this information, it is aimed that the clinic’s management and staff would be in a better position to make decisions with regards to the implementation of e-therapy in the clinic.
E-therapy
Description
E-therapy is a new modality that helps people resolve relationship and life issues (Grohol, 1999). It makes use of the Internet for both synchronous and asynchronous communication between the client and the healthcare professional. The service can be provided through web chat, video conferencing, instant messaging, or email (Cherry, 2006), Some of its uses include learning about new ways of dealing with stress or talking about interpersonal relationships. It can also be used in conjunction with real-world therapies or when clients need clarifications with regards to their treatment and the issues they are working on. As well, it can be used by clients who want to regularly get an expert’s objective evaluation or opinion about their lifestyle and mental well-being. It enables clients to receive professional guidance on the concerns that they have in their lives. However, it should not be mistaken for or used in place of psychological counseling or psychotherapy as it is not intended for diagnosing or treating medical or mental disorders and because it does not necessarily limit the people who may be providing e-therapy services.
E-therapy’s Impact on the Quality of Care
The advantage that e-therapy has over other modalities of care is that it allows more time for both the healthcare professional and the client to reflect on the issues that were discussed in previous correspondences (Grohol, 1999). In turn, it enables both parties to explore the issues on a more in-depth manner without the awkwardness that may come with having to give immediate responses to each other’s questions. With the absence of non-verbal and social cues, it would be easier for both parties to get to the point of the issues. They don’t have to be concerned about being embarrassed or with other impediments such as confidentiality fears. In addition, e-therapy has the advantage of providing both parties with access to a vast amount of information online. Since e-therapy uses text-based media that would involve the client’s reading, writing, and comprehension skills, these acts in themselves may help provide the client with emotional relief.
In this regard, e-therapy can help improve a client’s quality of life through the improved quality of care that healthcare professionals can provide. More specifically, e-therapy can help clients obtain easy and quick access to a healthcare professional’s guidance whenever they need guidance or coaching without having to physically go to the hospital or clinic. E-therapy makes healthcare more accessible to the clients. This medical service and technology also uses the Internet as its framework, which means that most people – whether clients or healthcare professionals – will be able to easily use this service as majority of Americans have the devices that will enable them to access the Internet.
E-therapy is also affordable for clients, although private chat sessions may cost as much as the traditional therapy sessions (Santhiveeran, 2004). E-therapy charges would generally run between $25 and $60 for each half hour session, which can be paid through the use of a credit card (Santhiveeran, 2004). Email discussion services may be charged $1.50 per minute or a question may be charged from $20 to $50 either per question or per email exchange (Santhiveeran, 2004). It would also be possible for clients to be charged a flat monthly fee of $250 for an unlimited number of email exchanges (Santhiveeran, 2004).
E-therapy’s Social, Ethical, and Economic Impact to the Organization
The social impact of e-therapy on the organization is that, since clients from anywhere can access the organization’s e-therapy services, the organization should ensure that it will be able to address the cultural and linguistic differences of their clients (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). In this regard, it would be necessary for the organization to ensure that their healthcare professional have adequate cultural and linguistic competence (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). The organization should also be able to provide culturally competent treatment services, which incorporate the fundamental components of ethnic group culture, including traditional and religious beliefs and communication styles (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2009).
The ethical impact of e-therapy to the organization is that it becomes the organization’s responsibility to ensure the privacy of client information and the confidentiality of their communication with the healthcare professionals (Santhiveeran, 2004). The organization should also have processes and standards for setting boundaries, security, and the removal of information. More specifically, the following are some of the standards that should be established: state boundaries; safety and security; risks to privacy; limits of confidentiality while using electronic media; informed consent; encryption; boundaries of competence; and autonomy to agencies to regulate the limits of confidentiality (Santhiveeran, 2004).
Although it can be presumed that offering e-therapy services would be cost-effective for the organization, a more accurate economic impact analysis should be performed by the organization by determining the costs for all the treatment participants as well as for those who leave the treatment early (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). The organization should determine how much a treatment would cost using e-therapy and what the relationship is between the costs and outcomes.
Conclusion
This paper proposed the addition of e-therapy to the services offered by the UCLA Psychology Clinic. E-therapy is a healthcare service that provides clients with professional guidance on their relationship and life problems through the use of Internet communication tools. This improves the quality of care that clients receive as it can be more easily and quickly accessed. It also allows both the client and the healthcare professional more time to contemplate on the client’s concerns. It may also be more affordable for the clients.
References
Cherry, K. (2006, July 28). What is e-therapy? Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/b/2006/07/28/what-is-e-therapy.htm.
Grohol, J. M. (1999, May 14). Best practices in e-therapy: Definition & scope of e-therapy.
Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/best/best3.htm.
Santhiveeran, J. (2004). E-therapy: Scope, concerns, ethical standards, and feasibility. Journal of
Family Social Work, 8(3). doi: 10.1300/J039v08n03_03.
UCLA. (n.d.). UCLA psychology clinic. Retrieved from http://www.psych.ucla.edu/center-and-
programs/clinic.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2009). Considerations for the provision of e-
therapy Retrieved from http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA09-4450/SMA09-
4450.pdf.
