Mental Health Impairment clinical trials

Evaluating the Telehealth Single Session Consultation Service

Stony Brook University is home to several mental health clinics, that all work towards achieving overall wellness of their clients. The goals of Stony Brook University are met with the help of associated clinics that strive to improve wellness of individuals and their communities by helping to treat both mental and physical health impairments. One of these many clinics is the Krasner Psychological Center (KPC). At present, the KPC faces a challenge common to virtually all mental health clinics across the United States: the demand for psychological services far outpaces the number of available providers. Indeed, in the US, approximately 70% of those in need of mental health services do not receive them. As such, wait-lists at mental health clinics like the KPC are increasingly long, and longer wait-times for psychotherapy have predicted worse clinical outcomes once treatment is accessed (i.e., a 'nocebo' effect). Thus, there is a pressing need for effective, sustainable service delivery models that may facilitate more rapid access to care-for instance, providing a low-intensity service rapidly after an individual decides to seek treatment, capitalizing on client motivation. This sort of rapidly-provided, low-intensity service might have the added benefit of reducing overall waitlist lengths--e.g., if some subset of clients find the low-intensity service to be sufficient, a single session might be sufficient (in some cases) to spur positive behavioral and emotional change. One solution to this problem is the integration of single-session services into mental health clinics. Extensive research suggests that both youths and adults can benefit from just one session of goal-directed counseling, and these clinical benefits have been observed for a wide array of problems-including anxiety, depression, self-harm, and interpersonal conflicts. This research suggests the possibility that, for some subset of clients, a single session of counseling may be helpful, or even sufficient, in reducing clinical distress. Further, offering such service in a telehealth format will alleviate frequently cited barriers to care like transportation, geographic constraints, and limited time. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and short-term effects of the new telehealth-Single-Session Consultation (SSC) service, which is presently being provided to clients on the waiting list for psychotherapeutic services at the Krasner Psychological Center. The telehealth-SSC offers clients the opportunity to participate in a single, goal-directed consultation session based on Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) within two weeks of inquiring about services at the KPC (typically, clients wait 2-6 months prior to their initial clinic appointment). SFBT is an evidence-based therapy approach that guides services offered by existing single-session therapy clinics internationally. Clients who participate in the telehealth-SSC at any of these clinics may find the session helpful; two weeks after participating in the session, they receive the option to remain on the waitlist for long-term psychotherapy or remove themselves from the waitlist for psychotherapy, depending on whether they feel their clinical needs have been successfully addressed.