Background of the Study

If we can use apps to order dinner and video chats to stay intouch with family—we can use new technology to keep eachother healthy.” So commented Prime Minister Justin Tru-deau in May when he announced $240.5 million “to develop,expand, and launch virtual care and mental health tools tosupport Canadians,” in response to the COVID-19 pan-demic. That week, the Ontario government committed itselfto enhancing e-therapy options, particularly for those strug-gling with the stress of the pandemic, and the British Colum-bia government promised $5 million to support virtualmental health care. These commitments follow others madeby governments across North America, affecting compensa-tion and regulations and—ultimately—practice. With somuch political enthusiasm and pandemic reality, is mentalhealth care having a digital moment?COVID-19 pandemic has changed health care delivery,including mental health care services around the world.Consider:At the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health(CAMH), the largest psychiatric hospital in Canada,virtual care visits increased from approximately 350per month to almost 3,000, an increase of over 850%,from March to April 2020. Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organi-zation in the United States with 12 million plan mem-bers, now delivers 90%of its psychiatric carevirtually. In a newPsychiatric Servicespaper, Uscher-Pineset al. surveyed 20 American psychiatrists, finding thatall of them changed to fully virtual practices becauseof the COVID-19 pandemic, though most hadn’t usedtelepsychiatry previously. Apps and other forms of online care have grown morepopular; for example, Talkspace, which offers textmessages and therapy sessions, reports a 65%increase in clients since the pandemic started. Even communication apps such as WeChat andWhatsApp have been used to provide counseling.