Telehealth
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BY THE CHILDREN’S COALITION FOR NORTHEAST LOUISIANA
research tells us that parent and professional elehealth, also known as, education programs, like Stewards of teletherapy, e-therapy, internet Children, can actually prevent child sexual counseling, telepsychology, abuse by increasing protective factors and and telemedicine, is a form of reducing risk factors. therapy in which Kasey Witherington is patients receive counseling a mental health counselor from a licensed therapist or at Healthpoint Center in other professional via phone or through a video-conferencing Monroe, Louisiana. She has an app. It’s as simple as using independent practice, Kasey Witherington Counseling, LLC, your phone, smartphone or and sees children, teens, and laptop with a shared link adults in order to diagnose and to enable video, or other treat mental health disorders. electronic devices. Clinical settings often intimidate After graduating in 1996 from NLU, she worked as a certified children and adolescents, teacher in public and private and building rapport can be schools. However, she felt that difficult in an office setting. KASEY WITHERINGTON her calling was somewhere else. Childhood sexual abuse is an adverse childhood experience Therefore, she decided to go (ACE) that negatively effects children who back to school to pursue her master’s degree in counseling; and in 2006, she finished her will eventually become adults with mental, master’s degree in school counseling and physical and emotional issues that are battled community counseling which gave her the throughout life. Having a conversation about ability to work in a hospital or clinical setting. the things that hurt our children the most can be gut wrenching, but it is necessary. Even One of her proudest moments was receiving if the conversation about childhood sexual the “Heroes for Patients” award in 2017. abuse causes eyes to roll and individuals to profess, “that doesn’t happen in my family,”
124 MAY 2020 | WWW.BAYOULIFEMAG.COM
Q: What is the most important thing parents need to know about telehealth? A: The National Alliance on Mental Illness explains that children, teens, and adults, report 90% satisfaction regarding telehealth. Many teens prefer online therapy for sensitive issues, like sexuality, and selfharming behaviors. Teens, especially show high satisfaction rates since they are often reluctant to participate in traditional therapy sessions for fear of being labeled of stigmatized by their peers. The fear of anxiously sitting in a waiting room worrying someone they know will see them is eliminated via teletherapy. Parents, over 80% of teens own smartphones and use them daily. Simply put: today’s teens are more comfortable on screen than communicating face-to-face. If you are questioning whether your teen would be interested in teletherapy and the validity of such a method, an Australian study shows 72% of teens with mental health problems say they would access online therapy if given the opportunity, and 32% said they would choose online therapy over face-to-face meetings. Q: Why should you consider teletherapy for your child or adolescent? A: Teens are comfortable using
