Developing a Platform for Online Psychotherapy Sessions

Abstract

Introduction

Providing mental health services by real-time videoconferencing has been increasingly adopted as a method of reaching hard-to-serve populations since the early 1990s. There is a growing body of evidence investigating the efficacy of delivering online mental health care. Though studies vary in quality, they generally demonstrate that online mental health care is effective across multiple age groups. Online is generally well accepted by patients and specialists and its implementation is feasible. It is also convenient and cost effective.

Objectives

Due to the fact that almost 75% of Romanian population have internet access and that mental health services are still stigmatized we perceived the opportunity to develop an online platform where patients can easily find and interact with mental health specialists using secured videoconference.

Methods

During a timeframe of two years a multidisciplinary team managed to develop and test an online platform where patients can access psychotherapy sessions. Main design and development targets were usability and confidentiality/security. The platform has an appointment tool, a secure videoconference solution and an integrated online payment service.

Results

The platform can be accessed at https://atlashelp.ro. It was launched in mid July 2016 and it already gathers more than 50 mental health specialists. The feedback was excellent from both specialists and patients.

Conclusions

The solution developed is complaint with most of international standards and offers easy to access and high quality psychotherapeutic services for Romanian patients.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.