Going Telemental: Contact and Intimacy in Digital Mental Health

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Author(s): Shaun Respess (Virginia Tech, USA)
Copyright: 2022
Pages: 15
Source title: Applied Ethics in a Digital World
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes (University of Miami, USA)and Jane Thomason (University College London, UK)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8467-5.ch009

Keywords: Business & Management / Cyber Ethics / Ethics and Social Responsibility / Information Science Reference

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Abstract

Telemental health (TMH) is considered by many to be the future of mental healthcare, with some claiming that these methods should replace more traditional approaches. Early teletherapeutic initiatives demonstrate an immediate set of benefits for patients including improved access to care, reduced costs, better schedule flexibility, greater environmental familiarity, and higher rates of patient engagement. Notable limitations to TMH include enhanced privacy concerns, the variable digital literacy of certain populations/persons, and technological instability. However, other limitations regarding therapeutic relationships, experiences, and settings have gone undertheorized and are not sufficiently represented in the current research. This chapter surveys these considerations and argues that digital medical interventions are unable to effectively replicate the same degree of ‘contact' and ‘intimacy' available in physical care; providers should therefore be cautious in wholly replacing in-person methods or in implementing a standalone paradigm of digital care.

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Going Telemental: Contact and Intimacy in Digital Mental Health

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