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Chapter 25 - Telemental Health in Fertility Counseling

from VI - Practice Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2022

By
Lauren Magalnick Berman  and
Carrie Eichberg
Edited by
Sharon N. Covington
Sharon N. Covington
Affiliation:
Shady Grove Fertility, Rockville, MD
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Summary

Telemental health (TMH) is an exciting modality which makes it possible to provide services when it is inconvenient, untenable or impossible to work from one’s professional office. It offers professionals the ability to provide services from flexible locations and for clients to access services from locations that are convenient to them. For fertility counselors, TMH provides potential solutions for the challenges of accessibility for clients who live far from clinics, as well as third-party arrangements such as known donors and gestational surrogacy arrangements. TMH requires significant changes from in-person practice and entails some risks and cautions. Licensing laws, insurance issues, technology failures, privacy concerns, and distortions in transmission all impact the quality and utility of TMH. There is a significant learning curve for fertility counselors to become proficient in TMH and its particular requirements and procedures.Specific training in TMH facilitates this learning and enables fertility counselors to practice effectively and ethically. TMH is best used by professionals who approach this modality thoughtfully and who are knowledgeable about the practice, the ethics and the laws pertaining to it.

Keywords

fertility counselingtelemental healthtelepsychological assessmenttelepsychologyinfertility counselingthird-party reproductionPAIpersonality assessment inventoryMMPIdonorgestational carrier
Type
Chapter
Information
Fertility Counseling: Clinical Guide , pp. 255 - 263
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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