Telephonebased mental health services have become available in Turkey in recent decades, including a suicide crisis intervention hotline administered by the Bakirkoy Prof. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, and remote substance abuse counseling services provided by the Ministry of Health and the Turkish Green Crescent Society (8,9). (32) identified 6 areas of ethical challenges for the delivery of remote mental healthcare: data security, privacy, and confidentiality;clinical safety of telepsychiatry recipients;competency and readiness of telepsychiatric practitioners;legal, regulatory, and financial concerns;informed consent for services;and social justice concerns. [...]we suggest that formal mental health care programs should include telepsychiatry training that includes competency in technical requirements, clinical assessment, communication strategies, the therapeutic relationship, consultation, liaison with other disciplines, ethical and legal aspects, and evaluation of the sociocultural characteristics of patients (36,37). Growth and success in telehealth has emerged as an unexpected silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic and reminds us that it is critical to develop more effective mental health service delivery systems that can enhance treatment access and quality.
Virtualization of mental health care in the midst of chaos: Is telepsychiatry a silver lining?: Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences