Telepsychiatry helps in direct interaction between a psychiatrist and a patient even from afar. Psychiatrists can also support primary care providers of people with mental health issues from a distance mode through telepsychiatry because it is not only the patient but the entire family that suffers when someone in the family is not well. Healthcare of caregivers is of utmost significance and can be very well taken care of through telemedicine. 

How is telepsychiatry beneficial?

Telepsychiatry enables mental health care in a live, interactive session with recordings of medical information in the form of videos for later review. It provides a number of benefits:

• Makes mental health accessible especially if people are staying in rural areas where mental health professionals are hardly available.
• During times like home isolation, it brings care to the location of the patient.
• People are in the habit of neglecting treatment if they are too busy or if they are in isolation. Telepsychiatry ends time wastage or trips to hospitals where there are chances of infection.
• Care becomes instant.
• There is continuity in care.
• Lots of hassle gets reduced as there is no requirement to take a day off from work.
• Since there is still stigma attached to mental healthcare, telepsychiatry enables healthcare in privacy.
• Opening up about one’s mental condition becomes easier if a person talks in the surroundings of one’s own home instead of a clinic.
• One can get in touch with the best treatment without worrying about the distance. One can get treated from a psychiatrist staying in any corner of the country or even abroad. 

Since there has been lots of telepsychiatry practices in the times of pandemic, this model has been rigorously tried, tested and followed. The available research data point towards the fact that telepsychiatry is effective. A number of mental health startups have come up in the space of telepsychiatry with testimonials of happy patients hinting towards the fact that telepsychiatry is beneficial.