Mental health care and on line consultation during the covid – 19 pandemic: A literature review

Introduction

The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic had negative effect on people's mental health. Also it resulted in many transformations in mental health care services delivery. Mental health professionals preferred to provide mental health services via telehealth in order to meet their client’s mental health needs. The purpose of this literature review is to analyze and evaluate the concept of online consultation throughout the covid-19 pandemic.

Methods

The literature search was conducted by using the following data bases: Medline, Scopus, Google scholar. All articles published in English language were selected. The key words used were Covid-19, online consultation and mental health professionals.

Results and discussion

This study is a review of mental health professionals’ (social workers, psychologists, psychotherapists) experience related to the online consultation process used during the covid-19 pandemic. The aim was twofold: First, to explore the mental health professionals’ attitudes and second, to investigate their client’s requests and their mental health needs and priorities. Also it is a holistic approach of the utility, ethical issues and difficulties of the online consultation from the point of view of professionals, clients and their families.

Conclusions

Online consultation might be a useful tool in mental health settings, especially during periods of crisis. Possible benefits of the study will be the assessment of the difficulties of online counseling and the evaluation of its effectiveness. However, it is an ongoing research subject given the challenges or issues that have been raised.