Digital Mental Health Improves Access to Care, Facilitates Early Intervention, and Provides Evidence-Based Treatments at a Distance

Most healthcare systems are striving to improve access to timely, evidence-based, and cost-friendly healthcare, particularly for mental disorders. Telemental health video improves access to care regardless of the point-of-service or barriers involved, and it is effective across age, diagnosis, and populations. Asynchronous technologies like mobile health are also effective modes of service delivery to a variety of settings and populations. Early evidence-based intervention is easier to distribute via telehealth and is particularly helpful for very young children and their families, diverse populations, and others with medical disadvantages. Research is needed on how to implement and evaluate synchronous and asynchronous technologies for clinical care and training, as well as across cultures and across users’ health, lifestyle, and clinical care experiences.