Risk and Benefits of On-Line Therapy

Benefits of On-Line Therapy

• Convenience - You can talk with your therapist while at home, on vacation, or during your lunch hour. No need to spend time driving or missing appointments due to being out of town.  
• Reduces the stigma - while we have your name and address, your privacy is protected from the public. because you will not have to be in a waiting room
• Helps with people that have Transportation Problems or have Social Anxiety.  
• Easy access - Provides accessibility to people who are disabled, home-bound or live in rural areas.
• Effective - Online therapy has been shown to be effective by several studies and is being accepted by many state licensing boards. The video based services are very similar to face-to-face with all the new HIPAA compliant video streaming software. I

Limitations of On-line Therapy

• Crisis Situations are difficult for on-line therapist to manage, so if you are in a crisis, call 911, a hotline, or go to your local ER or call a local therapist.  See our Referral Page for numbers and other suggestions. 
• Limitations to Technology - critical conversations may get disrupted due to technical difficulties, or emails may not be received by intended therapist in a timely fashion. 
• Difficult problems, such as psychosis or major mental illnesses may not be suitable for on-line therapy.  Your therapist can help determine that. 
• You need to be aware of your surroundings, are you in a location where others can overhear you ? There therapist cannot see everyone that may be listening so that will be your responsibility to keep your session 

KY Rules and Laws Regarding Telehealth

• Be sure to let your therapist knows you want to do Telehealth and he/she will do an Assessment to determine if that will work for you. You MUST have the capability to do hook up to the Internet and have Video on your Computer, Laptop, Tablet of Phone. If you don't have Audio, you can use your Phone in addition to the Video. It is neither Effective Nor Legal to do Text, Email, or Phone Mental Health sessions. We are required to see your face!    (The  rule  about  not  using  Phone  Therapy  has  been  relaxed  during  COVID-19  Pandemic).    
• Sign the Telehealth Consent Form that will be provided to you thru the Portal once you become a client. If you did not get a consent form for telehealth, ask your therapist for one so that you can read and sign it before you start.
• We will need a picture to prove your identification on file in the system.
• You don't have to be a Kentucky Resident, but you do have to be sitting in Kentucky at the time of any session. The therapists at Therapeutic village are licensed for Kentucky onLLY.    Time Zone Differences should be discussed with the therapist as well. Kentucky is in the Eastern Time zone in the east, and a bit west of Louisville, it changes to Central Time zone. Most of our therapists will be located in the Eastern Time Zone.  
• Most Insurance Companies are paying for this, but there is a possibility that it will not. This can be discussed with the therapist at first session.
• Therapeutic Village uses RingCentral for Telehealth sessions, which is synchronous transmission, and it meets criteria for confidentiality. We also use TherapyNotes.Com for On-line Record keeping of notes and diagnosis, payment information, et cetera. This also meets criteria for online security and HIPAA rules.  
• In case of Emergency. We will need you exact location, a name of an Emergency Contact, and a phone number of your local emergency services (hospital, police, fire).  
• In case you are cut-off, you can contact 859-595-5860 by phone or text. If no one answers, you may want to do Text as the therapist in session will be looking for a text. The therapist may also initiate a new SecureVideo.com Session and you can resume as normal.  Be  sure  we  have  your  correct  phone  number  so  we  can  contact  you  via  phone  if  necessary.
• Protect  your  Confidentiality  and  ensure  that   there  are  no other  people  in  the  room  and  you  have  privacy.        
• Video and Audio Recording on either end is forbidden by law due to issues of storing and confidentiality. 

A Note about Social Media and Text/Email

Due to confidentiality, privacy and a host of other reasons, therapists are not permitted by their ethic boards to "Friend" you onFacebook, twitter and other social media. In addition, while we can Text the 859-595-5860 number, it can be seen by other therapists so you may want to limit what you say.  

A Note about COVID-19.

The governor has relaxed some of the rules during the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, the state is allowing Phone Telehealth at this time. While this may have some issues of not being secure, we will discuss this with you personally if we end up having to do phone therapy.