The Florida legislature has passed Chapter 2019-137, Laws of Florida. Signed into law by the governor and effective July 1, 2019, Chapter 2019-137 clarifies the definitions for health care providers who use or plan on using telehealth services in Florida, as well as the steps needed to provide ethical, legal and competent services within the state. The full text of Chapter 2019-137 can be downloaded on the home page http://www.flhealthsource.gov/telehealth/.

It is now mandatory for practitioners who are licensed out-of-state and do NOT hold an additional Florida license to be registered with the state in order to perform telehealth services for patients located in Florida. (Licensed Florida providers are already allowed to practice telehealth with patients they would be able to see face-to-face.)

Finding the right therapist for yourself or someone else can be challenging for anyone.  However, finding a psychotherapist for someone who is living abroad can be even more difficult.  To help provide some guidance with this task, our CEO, Raymond Barrett, interviewed Josh Sandoz, LMHC, who is curator of the International Therapist Directory.

Presenting at the Licensed Professional Counseling Association of North Carolina (LPCANC) this year was a new experience for us. One of our alumni, Tanya Guinn, LPC, both a telemental health provider in North Carolina and a member of the LPCANC, took initiative with the idea of VIRTUALLY co-presenting on TeleMental Health at the LPCANC Conference with our CEO, Raymond Barrett. 

The use of mobile devices and mobile apps have become the norm. Mobile apps solve people's need for purchases, information, connection, health and nutrition tracking, and mental health. Deciding which mobile app to use for a specific mental health need, such as managing depression, can be difficult. There are thousands of apps to choose from and the information available on the apps’ sales pages are often not adequate to make an informed decision.

Clinicians need to be competent at reviewing apps before recommending them to clients. Individuals seeking to utilize apps also need guidance in making a smart decision. Professional organizations have carefully created guidelines for evaluating apps for mental health. For example Raymond Barrett, our CEO, as a member of the American Telemedicine Association has been on an ATA task force for establishing tool for evaluating mobile apps for depression.

JAMIA recently published their study on the US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) initiative to bring telehealth to Veterans in serious need of healthcare and with barriers to accessing care. Eighty-six VA facilities provided tablets with telehealth capabilities to 6,745 patients.

Louisiana's LPC Board of Examiners has enacted their Teletherapy Guidelines for Licensees, which requires telemental health training prior to licensees providing teletherapy.  The new regulation is clear, helpful, and reasonable to comply with. 

In June of 2018, I provided a two-part (two-day) training on TeleMental Health at the University of North Florida as part of a grant project called CMHC CONNECT (Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Creating Opportunities Needed in North Florida for Educating Counselors through Technology). The project was funded by the Humana Foundation and held in partnership with UNF. According to the university’s follow-up summary, they “contracted with Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC to provide TeleMental Health Training for CMHC students and mental health providers with comprehensive information on the establishment and provision of TeleMental Health services to clients.

This week Raymond Barrett, CEO of Telehealth Certification Institute, had the opportunity to interview Lisa Wozniak, a professional marketing consultant and the founder/owner of Woz Marketing, which according to their website (wozmarketing.com) is “a social media marketing company dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners and medical professionals.” The full video of their conversation can be found below.

Ruby Blow, owner and operator of Atlanta-based Development Counts, provides clinical supervision, consultation, and training. Among her many licenses and certifications, Ruby is an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS). She has provided services since 2001 and increasingly, Ruby has seen a shift in the mode of services to electronic meetings (primarily via video conferencing) rather than in-person.

In this interview with Dr. Douglas Weiss, Ph.D., we discuss the impact that using technology has had with clients, the importance of being appropriately trained when providing treatment for sex addiction, and the way his specialty practice works in conjunction with other counselors who provide care for other conditions such as anxiety or depression.