E-Therapy Frequently Asked Questions
How long have you been doing tele-therapy?
We have been doing therapy for a long time; we are seasoned therapists and are implementing a new service delivery model. This is up and coming, cutting edge technology and is becoming world wide practice. Tele-therapy is occurring across all professions, the medical profession, counseling, psychology, and even surgical procedures. This is really exciting and innovative way to reach people who don’t have access to service providers and who are in great need of therapy services.
What Age groups do you work with?
We can work with preschoolers to university students as well as adults and seniors. All students have different responses to teletherapy and are engaged and eager to participate in speech/language therapy.
What has been the reaction to your technological approach?
Students feel like movie stars, the students love to see themselves on the screen, it works as a mirror and the kids like to play with their facial expressions and their mouths. In some cases, there can be a reaction of apprehension toward the technology aspect, but this can be overcome once the service is shown to work.
What are the pros and cons of video calling?
The client is using technology throughout the entire therapy session. They are learning how to incorporate technology in all aspects of learning, following directions, language development, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and accessing resources like discovery and other academic sites that the school may use. Technology integrates simulations, interactive games, and intelligent therapy techniques which assist in improving the quality of learning and instruction. Teletherapy can provide better student assessments to identify and focus on individual needs and talents throughout therapy. Through the use of teletherapy these students can gain access to services otherwise unavailable. In some cases clients may not be suitable for teletherapy. Some areas are extremely rural and do not have the infrastructure to support teletherapy.
How do you maximize clarity of the audio/visual component?
We take advantage of high resolution VOiP services that provide a clear and continuous video and audio connection. In addition it is to our benefit that high speed internet is becoming widespread, allowing for high quality video and audio connections.
What are the main issues you face and how do you handle HIPPA compliance?
All of our online therapy components are using industry standard encryption (256 bit encryption) We also have password protection and secure therapy rooms. We run a robust self-auditing stress test to find weaknesses in security.
Do you record your sessions and if so how useful is that?
We can record therapy sessions as needed or by therapists discretion, it is a great tool to assist progress in therapy. Every aspect of the therapy session can be recorded, including video conference, game activities, whiteboard activities, and any desktop applications. We can also monitor our therapists when they provide therapy. This provides quality assurance to our therapy sessions.