MAMH Blog
Expanding Access to Care: The Role of Tele-Behavioral Health in Massachusetts Schools
Jan 28, 2025
MAMH's new report explores the potential of tele-behavioral health programs in schools to improve access to mental health care, highlighting best practices, equity concerns, and policy considerations for sustainable services for middle and high school students.
While many children and adolescents experience positive mental health, a significant and growing number of youth are experiencing mental health issues that interfere with their academic performance, social development, and well being. At the same time, demand for behavioral health services far outweighs provider availability and contributes to significant access issues for children and families.
Telehealth utilization, especially tele-behavioral health utilization, has increased dramatically both nationally and in Massachusetts. Tele-behavioral health services can improve access by removing significant barriers to care such as long waiting times for appointments, transportation time and cost, childcare needs, and challenges with balancing work and family schedules. Telehealth may also allow individuals an increased opportunity to see providers of their race, ethnicity, and gender or sexual identity, or providers that specialize in specific treatment modalities or treating specific conditions.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) partnered with MAMH to examine tele-behavioral health programs operating in school settings with services either delivered at the school or services delivered at home with referrals through the school to determine their potential to increase access to behavioral health services for middle and high school students and their families. The final report, Tele-Behavioral Health for Middle and High School Students: Best Practices and Policy Considerations for Massachusetts:
- Examines tele-behavioral health initiatives and programs in Massachusetts and other states, highlighting successful models that can be adapted to the needs of different communities in the Commonwealth.
- Outlines key considerations for launching or enhancing tele-behavioral health programs in schools, focusing on communication with caregivers, clarity of service scope, age criteria, and workflow procedures, among others.
- Provides specific best practices for both school-based and home-based tele-behavioral health services, including leadership buy-in, privacy considerations, and necessary technology.
- Addresses equity concerns, offering strategies to reduce disparities in access and provide culturally responsive services for underserved groups, including those with limited internet or digital literacy.
- Highlights policy reforms in reimbursement, licensing, provider credentialing, and access to affordable Wi-Fi to support sustainable tele-behavioral health services in schools and the broader behavioral health system in Massachusetts.
Tele-behavioral health is one tool in a larger toolbox of mental health services for youth. Tele-behavioral health alone is not a solution for all child and adolescent mental health concerns and conditions, but it is a useful option for many children and their families, though it should not replace in-person services when they are available and if they are preferred. Tele-behavioral health in schools can be one option in an array of services available to students. Our vision is that every school district in the Commonwealth provides equal access for all students to comprehensive systems of school-based behavioral health supports.
Read the full report here and the Executive Summary here.
Please note: We use the spellings of “telehealth” and “tele-behavioral health” unless referring to the formal name of a program where the terms are spelled differently.

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