Teletherapy is a new form of service delivery that allows practitioners to provide consultation services to clients despite geographical distances. Although Teletherapy had been used in other social service fields, research on Teletherapy within the field of behavior analysis is still relatively new. Teletherapy could advance our field by allowing behavior analysts to provide consultation and supervisions services to a higher number of clients, since Teletherapy would reduce the time and cost spent traveling to different family homes. Research had already shown that Teletherapy can effectively teach parents to implement new skills to their child with autism. This study sought to expand research by comparing Teletherapy supervision sessions with in vivo supervision sessions with four personal support staff. Social validity and treatment integrity were measured in order to assess if staff felt supported during Teletherapy sessions, and to compare any differences in staff performances across the supervision formats. Results show that 75% of the staff felt just as supported during teletherapy supervision as they did during in vivo sessions, and all staff felt that the program used to conduct teletherapy sessions was easy to use. In addition, there was no difference in staff performance for all 4 participants across supervision formats. Future research on Teletherapy is also addressed, and the positive impact Teletherapy can have in advancing the field of behavioral analysis.

Within the deaf population, an extreme mental health professional shortage exists that may be alleviated with videoconferencing technology – also known as telehealth. Moreover, much needed mental health education within the deaf population remains largely inaccessible. Researchers have forewarned that the deaf population may remain underserved if significant changes do not take place with traditional service delivery methods. The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth in teaching psychoeducational objectives, with special emphasis given to its application to the deaf population. The results of this study indicate that telehealth can be considered to be an efficacious and cost effective option in delivering health care to the deaf population. Results also indicate participant satisfaction with the technology.

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increased uptake in telehealth services. However, little research has compared the efficacy of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for youth with anxiety administered via (a) telehealth and (b) in-person. The present study examined outcomes for youth with anxiety disorders (diagnosed by an Independent Evaluator; IE) treated via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and youth treated via in-person therapy prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Participants (n = 92) were 46 families who completed telehealth treatment and 46 families who completed services in-person, matched on age and principal anxiety diagnosis. One-sided t-tests for non-inferiority tested whether telehealth is non-inferior to in-person therapy, a gold standard treatment. ANOVAs and regression models estimated treatment differences and candidate moderators (e.g., social anxiety disorder, comorbid attention problems). Results: Results support non-inferiority across multiple indices of outcomes (i.e., self- and caregiver-reported anxiety symptoms, IE-rated functional impairment, and IE-rated treatment response). Analyses indicate that both treatments were effective in reducing anxiety symptoms and functional impairment. Caregivers reported higher levels of anxiety for youth treated via telehealth than youth treated in person. No variables moderated the differences in outcomes between treatment modality. Conclusions: Findings support that CBT administered via telehealth is similarly efficacious as CBT administered in-person. Implications regarding the availability and accessibility of evidence-based treatment for youth with anxiety are discussed. / Psychology

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