Tele-Behavioral Health for Middle and High School Students: Best Practices and Policy Considerations for Massachusetts
January 28, 2025
Categories: Health Promotion, Special Populations, Children Behavioral Health, Advocacy, Reports and Briefs
Downloads:
Tele-BH-Report_Full_FINAL.pdf
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.