TELETHERAPY RESOURCES

As therapists navigate the changes and disruptions caused by COVID-19, TAMFT has gathered the following list of resources and important information for you.

Please note that the views, opinions, and resources included here do not necessarily reflect a TAMFT position, and not all resources have been thoroughly reviewed or vetted. We simply offer these resources as a compilation of items that may help you during this time. We encourage you to watch our Latest News page for updates as we learn more about telemental health requirements in Texas.

Have a resource to share? Contact us with information about your teletherapy resource.

Rules & Regulations & Updates:

• OCR Announces Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth Remote Communications During the COVID-19 Nationwide Public Health Emergency: On March 18, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced, effective immediately, that it will exercise its enforcement discretion and will waive potential penalties for HIPAA violations against health care providers that serve patients through everyday communications technologies during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/03/17/ocr-announces-notification-of-enforcement-discretion-for-telehealth-remote-communications-during-the-covid-19.html

• States’ Rules and Regulations: This page provides behavioral health professionals resources for locating the laws, rules, and regulations for providing telemental health services in the United States of America. https://telementalhealthtraining.com/states-rules-and-regulations

• Texas Administrative Code Regulations for MFTs on Technology Assisted Services: Guidelines for professional therapeutic services and code of ethics related to Texas MFTs. https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=22&pt=35&ch=801&rl=58

• BHEC rule 22 TAC §882.70 allows for the temporary licensure of out-of-state mental health professionals when the governor has declared a state of emergency, which happened and continues to be extended due to COVID-19. Individuals must apply to the board for this status and renew every 30 days. (They are not permitted to simply begin practicing.) For questions regarding temporary privileges, TAMFT encourages licensees to reach out directly to the Texas licensing board for confirmation. The contact information to the Texas licensing board can be found at https://www.bhec.texas.gov/contact-us/index.html 

Information/FAQs on Teletherapy

• The general rule of thumb is always that therapy occurs where the client is, so you must follow the laws of the state wherever your client is. If your client is in another state for an extended period of time you should check with that state's licensing board to see if you can obtain temporary privileges (rare) or consider becoming fully licensed in that state (preferred). If the client is going to be in another state for an extended time, it may be reasonable for the client to seek counseling from a therapist in that state. An example may be referring a college student to their counseling center for continued treatment during the school year.
  
  

• American Psychological Association Guidelines for Practice of Telepsychology: APA has developed extensive guidelines for telepsychology. www.apa.org/practice/guidelines/telepsychology

• American Psychiatric Association Learning to Do Mental Health: American Psychiatric Association has also developed guidelines: https://www.apa.org/practice/guidelines/telepsychology

• Best Practices in the Online Practice of Couple and Family Therapy: Free booklet from AAMFT. https://www.aamft.org/Online_Education/Online_Therapy_Guidelines_2.aspx

• College Counseling From a Distance Guidebook: The Higher Education Mental Health Alliance offers this guide. http://hemha.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/HEMHA-Distance-Counseling_FINAL2019.pdf

• COVID FAQ for Therapists: This blog shares guidance for therapists. https://www.zynnyme.com/blog/2020/3/12/covid-19-plan-for-therapists-questions-answers-and-guidelines

• DrugWatch's A Patient's Guide to Telemedicine Blog: https://www.drugwatch.com/health/telemedicine-patients-guide/
  
  

• Ethical Practice in Telemedicine: While this link refers to telemed and is geared for physicians, the guidelines listed can apply to behavioral health as well. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ethics/ethical-practice-telemedicine

• Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start: Although this article is focused on teaching, it provides a perspective for how to be thoughtful while quickly moving into new platforms. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Going-Online-in-a-Hurry-What/248207

• How Coronavirus Impacts Your Practice: This blog by Simple Practice gives you some guidance on your practice and COVID-19. https://www.simplepractice.com/blog/how-coronavirus-impacts-your-practice/

• National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers: Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) have been established to provide assistance, education and information to organizations and individuals who are actively providing or interested in providing health care at a distance. https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/

Courses

• Center for Counseling and Family Relationships Training: Telehealth, HIPAA, and PCI Standards Training Course. This courses meets the 15 hour requirement for TX LMFT and incorporates regulations and recommendations from Texas LMFT, NBCC Policies, AAMFT, ACA, AMFTRB, HIPAA, PCI, and HITECH. https://training.ccfam.com/hipaa-pci-and-telemental-health-online/

• How to Start a Telemental Health Practice, TAMFT FREE Course: This online course is FREE for active TAMFT members and just $10 for nonmembers and provides 1 CEU hour that can count toward the LMFT Board requirement. https://tamft.mclms.net/en/package/613/course/959/view

• Questions About Teletherapy in the Era of COVID-19 Q&A Webinar: This online course is FREE for active TAMFT members and just $10 for nonmembers and provides 1 CEU hour that can count toward the LMFT Board requirement. https://tamft.mclms.net/en/package/915/course/1382/view

• BC-TMH: Board Certified - Telemental Health Training Content: Video-based telemental health is a rapidly growing field spanning multiple mental health disciplines. Today’s mental health professionals seek the best practices and credibility to offer safe and effective services to their clients.The Board Certified–Telemental Health Provider (BC-TMH) credential is designed to meet this need. http://www.startelehealth.org/certificates-and-credentials

• Houston Galveston Institute Training Programs: The Houston Galveston Institute is offering the training materials from its Technology Assisted Services training without charge to help therapists transition their practices online. They have been teaching therapists how to develop their online practices for the past three years and now want to help. They are not charging anything for these materials, but ask that you consider making a donation to support their training programs (click here - Donate to HGI Training Programs). If you cannot afford to donate right now, they have email addresses for you to contact to be able to get the material for free. However, note that these materials will not make you eligible for the 15-hour CEUs certificate, which is required if you are an LMFT in Texas. Visit https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=iiGfxx to get the materials.

• How to Transition to a Telehealth Private Practice During COVID-19: FREE ecourse from Brighter Vision to help users set up their websites correctly and market themselves as they begin teletherapy practices. https://try.brightervision.com/covid19-transitioning-to-telehealth-1/

• NCTRC Webinar – Distance Counseling: Best Practices in Higher Education: https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/event/nctrc-webinar-distance-counseling-best-practices-in-higher-education/

• NCTRC Webinar – Telehealth and COVID-19: The National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers will be holding a webinar exploring further uses and benefits of telehealth during the COVID-19 outbreak. https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qcJHiCQBShyg3cR-Gc5DjQ

• Telehealth Legal and Ethical Issues: This 1-CEU course from Simple Practice is free right now, and a quick start. https://www.simplepracticelearning.com/courses/telehealth-legal-ethical

• Telehealth Certification Package: Telebehavioral Health Institute has dropped the price of their online 15-hour CE course on Telehealth practice 50% ($250 instead of $500). This course meets the TX LMFT Board requirement for providing online therapy.

• Telehealth for Mental Health Professionals: 2-Day Distance Therapy Training: 12.5 hour Teletherapy course. Now being offered for 50% off at checkout: https://catalog.pesi.com/item/52191/#tabDescription

• Telemental Health Basic Starter Package: Person Centered Technology is offering 8 CEUs at a discount--their "quick start" course package. They also have a 17-CEU certificate. https://personcenteredtech.com/tmh/starter/ 

• TeleMental Health and COVID-19: $5 for a 1-hour webinar that provides details about the logistics of telemental health and help guiding clinicians through the complicated ethical and legal considerations of providing therapy online. https://connecttmh.com/covid-19 

• Telemental Health Training & Supervision Certificate: This course meets the 15-hour requirement along with the ethics requirement and is only $150. https://renewedvisioncounseling.com/telemental-health-training/

• Therapeutic Boundaries in Telepsychology: Interesting article about boundaries in telemental health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4234043/

Individual Consulting

• Connect LLC: Provides TeleMental Health education and consulting to private practices, agencies, and universities. https://connecttmh.com/ 

• Camp Lejeune Claims Center Mental: Health Resources for Veterans https://www.camplejeuneclaimscenter.com/veterans/mental-health-guide/

Platforms

• Supporting Our Supervisors During COVID-19: Motivo is offering free use of their platform for supervisors needing to supervise online. https://wearemotivo.com/supporting-supervisors-covid-19/

• Enterprise Telemental Health Technologies: Comparison of platforms for telemental health. https://telementalhealthcomparisons.com/enterprise/

Articles/Publications

Barnett, J. E., & Kolmes, K. (2016). The practice of tele-mental health: Ethical, legal, and clinical issues for practitioners. Practice Innovations, 1(1), 53-66.

Gifford, V., Niles, B., Rivkin, I., Koverola, C., & Polaha, J. (2012). Continuing education training focused on the development of behavioral telehealth competencies in behavioral healthcare providers. Rural and Remote Health, 12, 1-15.

Inman, A. G., Soheilian, S. S., & Luu, L. P. (2018). Telesupervision: Building bridges in a digital era. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 75, 292-301.

Lehaman, R. M., & Conceicao, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching. San Francisco,  CA: Jossey-Bass.

McClannon, T. W., Cheney, A. W., Bolt, L. L., & Terry, K. P. (2018). Predicting sense of presence and sense of community in immersive online learning environment. Online Learning, 22(4), 141-159.

Scholl, M. B., Hayden, S. C. W., & Clarke, P. B. (2017). Promoting optimal student engagement in an online counseling courses. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 56, 197-210.

Vincenzes, K. A., & Drew M. (2017). Facilitating interactive relationships with students online. Distance Learning, 14(4), 13-22.

Yates, A., Brindley-Richards, W., & Thistoll, T. (2014). Student engagement in distance-based vocational education. Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning, 18(2), 29-43.