Recommendations for Building Telemental Health Relationships with Youth: A Systematic Review and Resource for Clinicians

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Telemental health is a growing medium for delivering psychotherapy to youth. While significant research has been devoted to relationship building in telemental health, creating meaningful relationships with youth remains complicated. Clinical tools are needed to support clinicians as they transition to telemental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This systematic review identifies recommendations for building rapport with youth over telehealth and serves as the basis for a clinician-friendly document to aid in clinician training and ongoing consultation.

Method

Three major databases were searched: PsycINFO, Web of Science Social Sciences Index, and PubMed. A total of N = 18 works met inclusion. Three doctoral-level clinical psychologists double-reviewed all articles, extracted recommendations from each article, synthesized recommendations into conceptual themes, and combined recommendations in order to create a clinician-friendly list of recommendations for building the telemental health relationship.

Results

Identified literature spanned a number of methodologies and characteristics. Recommendations were identified for all stages of the telemental health treatment span and included 195 recommendations spanning 12 broad themes. Some themes that emerged related to clinician behaviors, introducing and orienting to telemental health, and logistical considerations. Summaries of themes and recommendations are provided, as well as descriptive information related to reviewed works

Discussion

Recommendations were fairly consistent across works. We discuss implications of these themes for research on the telemental health relationship, clinical applications of our findings, and the need for increased resource-sharing and crowd-sourcing to support clinicians building telemental health relationships with youth.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas [RP170259]; National Institute of Mental Health [2T32MH073517].