Paul Saunders is a psychologist who has operated with various organisations, is a Senior Associate with the Melbourne Business School and The Positivity Institute as well as operate his own private practice for around 20 years. With the advent of the COVID-19 endemic and lockdowns in Victoria, the nature and focus of Paul’s work changed.
The Impact of COVID-19
Prior to the pandemic, Paul focussed a good deal of his time on executive leadership development and performance coaching with business clients from around the country and the world. But this year the focus of his services turned towards adding counselling services for clients suffering from the impact of COVID-19, either due to personal mental health issues or work stress related mental health issues.
With the lockdown, Paul needed to find a new way to connect with clients. In addition to starting to use various platforms, including Microsoft Teams and phone calls to connect with clients, Paul needed a secure platform for counselling sessions with clients.
“I checked out the options of telehealth”, says Paul Saunders. “The Australian Psychological Society (APS) ran a number of educational sessions and webinars early on in the breakout to help determine the best ways to add telehealth into our practice and medicare options for telehealth services”.
Finding a telehealth option that allowed for a way to easily and securely connect with patients became a priority. Paul spent time “Looking at what type of secure video system was operating and the ease of access for the client” as well as what type of support and additional functionality was available. In his clinical environment, Paul would generally have access to a whiteboard so he and a client could do activities related to cognitive behavioural therapy and changing behavioural patterns.
“I know there's been some concern from people, thoughts about, you know, ‘is telehealth going to be as effective?’ I had done some research looking at some of the journal articles and the research around telehealth that's been done here in Australia and overseas”. Says Paul.
Research has shown that video telehealth may be as effective as face to face communication. “Anecdotally, I've had this confirmed through some of my clients. I've actually found that I'm able to still offer CBT. It has a white board. It has the ability for me to share psycho-education material to them (clients) if needed and allows them to engage in such activities like practicing mindfulness and reframing exercises.”
This was one of the reasons that Paul chose the MyHealth1st telehealth solution, EasyTelehealth . EasyTelehealth is an end-to-end encrypted, browser based telehealth solution that integrates a number of additional features including an interactive whiteboard, screen sharing and secure document transfer, allowing psychologists and other healthcare professionals to virtually access the same kind of tools they would usually have in a clinical setting.
EasyHealthPayments
The other reason that EasyTelehealth became Paul’s go to telehealth solution was the integration of easy online payment options thanks to EasyHealthPayments , powered by Medipass. With EasyHealthPayments, Paul is able to take payments online at the end of a telehealth session, so no matter if the session is covered by Medicare through a Mental Health Care Plan, is privately billable through a credit card, or covered by DVA benefits, the client can settle the bill in a few simple clicks.
“It’s a system that was able to allow easy access to (online) payment that was linked in with the Medipass process. That's why I found the MyHealth1st system so good”, says Paul. “ One of the advantages the clients have found is it's a really smooth, easy to use process. They just get a message on their phone so they know they don't have to actually give me their credit card details. It’s quick and confidential. We do that at the end of the session, same as if they went out and they would do with the receptionists, it's just the same process, but a lot easier”.
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Paul Saunders wasn’t a MyHealth1st customer for Online Appointments before the pandemic, but his decision to adopt EasyTelehealth brought him onto the platform.
According to Paul, “I can easily align the telehealth to my calendar to make sure my availability is clear. I get a notification of a booking, which means I can add it into my Google calendar, which balances out with all the other work I've got going as well”.
MyHealth1st Online Appointments not only works with standalone diaries like Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, it also seamlessly integrates with over 50 of the country’s most popular practice management systems across all healthcare sectors.
