Welcome to the Nexus of Ethics, Psychology, Morality, Philosophy and Health Care

Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Transition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transition. Show all posts

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Five tips for transitioning your practice to telehealth

Five tips for transitioning your practice to telehealthRebecca Clay
American Psychological Association
Originally posted 19 June 20

When COVID-19 forced Boston private practitioner Luana Bessa, PhD, to take her practice Bela Luz Health online in March, she was worried about whether she could still have deep, meaningful connections with patients through a screen.

To her surprise, Bessa’s intimacy with patients increased instead of diminished. While she is still mindful of maintaining the therapeutic “frame,” it can be easier for everyday life to intrude on that frame while working virtually. But that’s OK, says Bessa. “I’ve had clients tell me, ‘It makes you more human when I see your cat jump on your lap,’” she laughs. “It has really enriched my relationships with some clients.”

Bessa and others recommend several ways to ensure that the transition to telehealth is a positive experience for both you and your patients.

Protect your practice’s financial health

Make sure your practice will be viable so that you continue serving patients over the long haul. If you have an office sitting idle, for example, see if your landlord will renegotiate or suspend lease payments, suggests Kimberly Y. Campbell, PhD, of Campbell Psychological Services, LLC, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Also renegotiate agreements with other vendors, such as parking lot owners, cleaning services, and the like.

And since patients can’t just hand you or your receptionist a credit card, you’ll need to set up an alternate payment system. Campbell turned to a credit card processing company called Clover. Other practitioners use the payment system that’s part of their electronic health record system. Natasha Holmes, PsyD, uses SimplePractice to handle payment for her Boston practice And Still We Rise, LLC. Although there’s a fee for processing payments, an integrated program makes payment as easy as clicking a button after a patient’s session and watching the payment show up at your bank the next day.

The info is here.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Have our tribes become more important than our country?

Jonathan Rauch
The Washington Post
Originally published February 16, 2018

Here is an excerpt:

Moreover, tribalism is a dynamic force, not a static one. It exacerbates itself by making every group feel endangered by the others, inducing all to circle their wagons still more tightly. “Today, no group in America feels comfortably dominant,” Chua writes. “The Left believes that right-wing tribalism — bigotry, racism — is tearing the country apart. The Right believes that left-wing tribalism — identity politics, political correctness — is tearing the country apart. They are both right.” I wish I could disagree.

Remedies? Chua sees hopeful signs. Psychological research shows that tribalism can be countered and overcome by teamwork: by projects that join individuals in a common task on an equal footing. One such task, it turns out, can be to reduce tribalism. In other words, with conscious effort, humans can break the tribal spiral, and many are trying. “You’d never know it from cable news or social media,” Chua writes, “but all over the country there are signs of people trying to cross divides and break out of their political tribes.”

She lists examples, and I can add my own. My involvement with the Better Angels project, a grass-roots depolarization movement that is gaining traction in communities across the country, has convinced me that millions of Americans are hungry for conciliation and willing to work for it. Last summer, at a Better Angels workshop in Virginia, I watched as eight Trump supporters and eight Hillary Clinton supporters participated in a day of structured interactions.

The article is here.