Ethical Considerations for Telepsychotherapy and the Management of High-Risk Patients During Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19): Challenges and Practice Considerations

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a widespread cultural change to the provision of psychotherapy with patients rapidly converted to a virtual format. During this unprecedented time, therapists can benefit from reviewing and implementing best practice guidelines outlined by various professional organizations across the globe. Clinicians should utilize the resources put forth by international professional organizations to ethically adapt these recommendations to their clinical practice. Therapists must develop safety protocols to ethically deliver services to high-risk patients and also recognize the potential for new high-risk subgroups during this pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• telepsychotherapy
• high-risk patients
• suicidality

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.