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Digital illustration of a telehealth session featuring a psychologist and a male patient on a video call with clinical notes overlay.

Digital illustration of a telehealth session featuring a psychologist and a male patient on a video call with clinical notes overlay.

Delivering mental health services through telecommunications technology (mostly videoconferencing and phone calls), also known as telepsychiatry or telemental health, became common.[206][207][208] Due to lockdowns or 'stay at home' orders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health services in high-income countries were able to adapt existing service provision to telemental health care. Estimates suggest that between 48% and 100% of service users who were already receiving care at the start of the pandemic were able to continue their mental health care using remote methods. Some face-to-face appointments still took place if necessary.[209] The benefits of telemental health include accessibility, increased safety due to less in-person contact, and reducing the use of scarce personal protective equipment.[210][211] The role of telemental health and telehealth in lowering fatality rates and preventing increased presence in high-risk areas such as hospitals was generally significant.[212] A recent study of COVID-19 and Open Notes reports promising evidence of patients' benefits when reading their clinical notes online from mental health care.[213] When patients read their clinical notes from mental health care, they report an increased understanding of their mental health, feeling in control of their care, and enhancing trust in their clinician. Patients' are also reported to get feelings of greater validation, engagement, remembering their care plan, and acquiring a Ver más