Author(s): Child Mind Institute
- Katherine Martinelli
- Yakira Cohen
- Harry Kimball, Child Mind Institute
- Hannah Sheldon-Dean, Child Mind Institute
Published: Nov. 18, 2020
Report Intro/Brief:
“The coronavirus pandemic has been hard on kids and teens everywhere — especially those who were already dealing with mental health challenges. Telehealth (which uses technology to deliver healthcare remotely) has emerged as a promising treatment option for children’s mental health.
In this 2020 Children’s Mental Health Report, we look at the recent research on telehealth and address key questions including:
- How does telehealth work?
- Which children’s mental health services can be delivered via telehealth?
- How effective is telehealth?
- Who benefits from telehealth?
- How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted telehealth?
- What are patients’ and practitioners’ attitudes toward telehealth?
- What are the challenges of expanding telehealth access going forward?
Plus, we’ve got perspectives from a new Child Mind Institute/Ipsos survey on parents’ experiences using telehealth for their children’s mental health treatment. Conducted in September 2020 with a representative sample of 351 American parents, this survey offers unique insights into the rapidly changing landscape of telehealth for children’s mental health.
Findings from the survey include:
- Declining well-being: More than two thirds of parents who sought help since the start of the pandemic said they had witnessed a decline in their child’s emotional well-being (72%), behavior (68%), and physical health due to decreased activities/exercise (68%).
- Anxiety and depression are most common: Anxiety (40%) and depression (37%) are the most common mental health challenges leading parents to seek telehealth services for their child. Seeking help for problem behavior (30%), ADHD (30%) or learning challenges (23%) was also common.
- A variety of treatments: Talk therapy (49%) is the most common service parents have accessed or sought out through telehealth for their child, though a third of parents who have used/tried to use telehealth since the start of the pandemic also report accessing/seeking out psychiatric medication consultation (32%) and/or cognitive behavioral therapy (31%).
- Parent satisfaction: Parents in the survey who have used telehealth services for children report strongly positive responses. 86% said their child had benefited, 84% said it had been a positive experience for their child, 78% said they had seen significant improvement in their child, and 87% said they would recommend it to others.”
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