Abstract

While telepsychology has existed in various forms for years and has been researched since the 1960s (Abrams, 2020), it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that telepsychology started to be widely used. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one study found that psychologists conducted only around 7% of their work via telepsychology, a number that jumped to over 85% in response to COVID-19 (Pierce, Perrin, Tyler, et al., 2020). While there has been a significant increase in the research exploring the efficacy of telehealth since the start of the pandemic (Lin et al., 2022), further research regarding long-term impacts and specific populations best served is important (Burlingame et al., 2023). This study seeks to address gaps in the understanding of how telepsychology services impact a patient’s therapeutic outcomes compared to individuals receiving in-person services by examining patient outcomes before, during, and after alterations to care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall findings suggested no statistically significant difference in patient outcomes between the pre-, during, and post-COVID periods. Additionally, patient-reported distress was not significantly different across the three periods, and the change in patient outcomes followed a consistent trend across the three time periods. Overall, this research adds to the body of literature supporting the use of telehealth as outcomes pre-, during, and post-COVID were not different from one another.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/