In this episode of our COVID-19 mini series, we interview Dr. Tara McBride Afonso about telemental health. Tune in to hear about ethical and legal considerations for providing psychological services via telehealth, as well as practical tips for providing quality care and ensuring your older client has a good experience with telemental health.
Tara McBride Afonso, PsyD, is a staff psychologist at VA Boston Healthcare System and Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. McBride specializes in providing psychotherapy, assessments, and caregiver support to homebound older adults and their families. In addition to in-person care, she has been providing clinical services via telehealth for several years. Dr. McBride earned her doctorate from Nova Southeastern University where she carved out her own geropsychology focused training, went on to complete a pre-doctoral internship at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA in the gero-track, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Geropsychology at VA Boston. In addition to clinical duties, she supervises psychology fellows who rotate through the Home Based Primary Care setting and is a member of the Disruptive Behavior Committee at VA Boston.
Resources discussed in today’s episode:
McKnight Article: ‘Tips for Successful Telehealth Services Implementation in SNFs,’ by Jennifer Birdsall.
APA Articles on Telehealth:
Further Reading:
Implementation Considerations for Telehealth Programs Serving Older Adults, by the Rural Health Information Hub
‘Therapy Notes’ blog article: “The Therapist’s Telehealth Guide for COVID-19”
Gould, C. E., & Hantke, N. C. (2020). Promoting technology and virtual visits to improve older adult mental health in the face of COVID-19. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 28(8), 889-890.
Hantke, N. C., & Gould, C. (2020). Examining Older Adult Cognitive Status in the Time of COVID‐19. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(7), 1387-1389. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16514
Pimentel, C. B., Gately, M., Barczi, S. R., Boockvar, K. S., Bowman, E. H., Caprio, T. V., ... & Griffiths, P. C. (2019). GRECC Connect: geriatrics telehealth to empower health care providers and improve management of older veterans in rural communities. Federal Practitioner, 36(10), 464.
Dr. Tara McBride Afonso