APA Leaders Urge Congress To Expand Access To Mental Healthcare Through Telemedicine During And After The COVID-19 Pandemic

Psychiatric News (5/28) reports, “During a virtual Congressional briefing on Wednesday, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., and members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry emphasized the need for expanded access to mental health care through telehealth not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterward as well.” The APA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness hosted the briefing titled, “Collective Crisis: Preparing for America’s Next Wave of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs With Telehealth.” Peter Yellowlees, M.B.B.S., M.D., of UC Davis, and Shabana Khan, M.D., of NYU Langone Health, both of whom are members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry, also spoke during the briefing sharing “stories about how the loosening of telehealth regulations have helped them reach more patients and continue care for others during the pandemic.”