Health-Related Quality of Life of Rural Clients Seeking Telepsychology Services

Sixty million US residents live in rural areas, but health policies and interventions developed from an urban mindset often fail to address the significant barriers to health experienced by these local communities. Telepsychology, or psychological services delivered by distance via technology, is an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications 2014-01, Vol.2014 (2014), p.10-16
Main Authors: Brossart, Daniel F., Elliott, Timothy R., McCord, Carly E., Tarlow, Kevin R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Care and treatment
Clients
Communities
Depression, Mental
Diagnosis
Evaluation
Health
Health care access
Mental disorders
Mental health
Policies
Quality of life
Rural
Rural areas
Studies
Telemedicine
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Summary:Sixty million US residents live in rural areas, but health policies and interventions developed from an urban mindset often fail to address the significant barriers to health experienced by these local communities. Telepsychology, or psychological services delivered by distance via technology, is an emerging treatment modality with special implications for underserved rural areas. This study found that a sample of rural residents seeking telepsychology services (n=94) had low health-related quality of life (HRQOL), often due to cooccurring physical and mental health diagnoses including high rates of depression. However, a brief telepsychology treatment delivered to rural clients (n=40) was associated with an improvement in mental health-related quality of life (d = 0.70, P
ISSN:1687-6415
1687-6423
DOI:10.1155/2014/168158