The use of digital communication technologies in psychotherapy has grown, with telepsychology being particularly significant in daily practice. The social perception, application, and demographic profile of telepsychology users, however, have not received enough attention.

The technological advancement of health care delivery and the rise in consumer expectations make it imperative for psychologists to employ new tools and systems in an ethical and effective manner to improve practice, research, teaching, training, and policy. It calls on psychologists to enhance their technical skills, modify conventional psychological services, and use technology to assist clients who live far away.

While some argue that the use of computers as a vehicle for therapeutic transmission may be a novel approach, the theory and practice of non-face-to-face methods of therapy have occurred for decades, including the use of letters and telephone calls (Haas et al., 1996, Padach, 1984). For example, published correspondences indicated that Sigmund Freud utilized letters to provide therapeutic consultation (Freud, 1909) with posthumous articles suggesting that he used letters as an active, indirect mode of communication with his patients.

History of Telepsychology in India
When visiting a healthcare provider, family members of individuals suffering from any illness or condition often experience significant worry. Anxiety begins with scheduling an in-person appointment; it also extends to locating and purchasing prescription medications or going to additional counselling sessions. The history of telepsychological services in India is decades old.

Serving the mental health community since 1984, SCARF is a not for profit organization that offers high-quality treatment and rehabilitation programs. Immediately following the 2004 tsunami disaster, SCARF launched community clinics in the coastal districts of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, as part of its first community telepsychiatry effort. The goal was to provide disaster management through psychosocial support and counselling to the victims and their families, with funding from the South Asian Total Health Initiative (SATHI), Bengaluru, and the Oxfam trust. SCARF had to supply the gear in order to implement the service, but ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, provided technical support in the form of a partnership that provided free hardware and connection.

Obstacles and Opportunities
Consequently, options that are not possible with in-person services are also provided by telepsychology.

• Geographic barriers: Due to health inequities, physical accessibility issues, and information deficiencies, mental health agencies have found it difficult to provide mental health treatments in rural areas. With the client receiving basic technology training about security, confidentiality, and protocol for access and data management, videoconferencing is now feasible with basic technology access.
  
  
• Financial/Lower Socio-economic status: Individuals face various obstacles, one of them being financial constraints. When organizations scale services, this should be kept in mind from the patient’s perspective of cost.
  
  
• Social isolation: Utilizing telepsychology, people can make a commitment to a progressive reintegration into their social and professional communities This can be achieved by utilizing telepsychology that allows them clinical care in their comfort zones.
  
  
• Attitudinal barriers: Many people do not seek the treatment they require because of fears of shame, contempt, cultural beliefs, family bias, and stereotyping in society. Population may be reluctant to seek assistance. Privacy and protection from outside criticism sources, stereotyping and interactions with people regarding services are provided by telepsychology.
  
  
• Transportation: Transportation hurdles usually consist of high expenses, unreasonable time requirements, or lack of availability. Beyond the cost of the service, financial obstacles might significantly impact the expense of transportation, the time lost from work to get to and from the session would be another factor.
  
  
• Physical Limitations: The appropriateness of telepractice must be carefully considered by clinicians, especially for patients with speech or hearing impairments, language barriers, and cognitive impairments that may exacerbate issues with emergency response, technological proficiency, and confidentiality limits.

Other factors that might impact telepsychology can be limited therapeutic alliance, cooperating, protecting one’s privacy on digital platforms, and policy limitations on the kinds of psychotherapeutic interventions allowed.

Telepsychology: A growth area
Since COVID, there has been an explosion of online psychology providers. Some are formal like Telepsych and Practo platforms, but mostly are unorganized. The effectiveness of telepsychology is well-supported by research and the benefits of e-mental health interventions. For providers they include greater accessibility at any time and location; easier integration of learned skills into daily life due to patients’ active roles; flexibility in working at one’s own pace and reviewing materials as needed.

For patients it leads to better privacy, elimination of travel expenses and time; and potential draw for individuals who do not typically use traditional mental health services. It is a viable and acceptable mode of treatment, according to the limited qualitative research on videoconference-based home-based psychotherapy that examines patients’ perspectives. Patients were able to take less time off from work due to flexible scheduling (Ashwick et al., 2019), and other patients benefited from having more regular contact with their therapist, which improved their participation in their treatment (Christensen, Wilson, et al., 2020). According to Hensel et al. (2020) and Tarp & Nielsen (2017), patients’ sense of control was increased, and access was made easier by allowing others to select whether to attend in person or via videoconferencing per session.

There is established evidence of very positive results when done in tightly regulated environments. For example, using remote videoconferencing to provide telemental health care reduced hospitalization utilization by 25% on average between 2006 and 2010 for a study of 98,000 mental health patients (Godleski, Darkins, & Peters, 2012). So, the rise of social media and the digital revolution all make it possible to forecast the effectiveness of telepsychology and to understand its significant contribution to the provision of mental health treatments. Government measures that are supportive have improved the suitability and success of the telehealth sector.