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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published Online: 10 May 2021

Children and telehealth: Not as simple as giving away tablets

Publication: Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice
To the Editor,
While we appreciate the cultural context in provision of services, and certainly in terms of uptake of TH, we are unsure whether the information presented in the letter adds measurably to that discussion. It is nice to see complementary data and clinical services applying data frames to their clinical work; however, ​the letter describes without detail numbers from a relatively small sampling, with no description of methods or what the numbers mean. Moreover, the follow‐up survey of technology access in this cultural cohort is interesting but lacks any rigor as to sampling, method, analysis, or context. We would welcome it being developed into a full study which may have interest for this cultural system. The conclusion, roughly stated, “if they just had devices the uptake of TH would be large,” may or may not be true, but lacks nuance especially given the cultural context, namely: a cohort ​unique in both its attitudes toward technology and toward COVID‐19 [1, 2]. We note in our paper [3] that TH included primarily telephonic sessions (70%), not just video, which undermines the point of the letter. Of further note, while not described in the paper, tablets and laptops with Internet were offered to this cohort during the pandemic but telephone was much preferred. ​Finally, while the issue of culture is important to our paper, we specifically note its ubiquity to all segments of the analyzed data. The phenomena of in‐person preference among child clients and providers was consistent across groups in our study with both Chasidic and non‐Chasidic groups demonstrating this child in‐person preference.

Footnotes

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
This is a Response to a Letter available here: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20210009. The Article that is the subject of the Letter is available here: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20200035.

REFERENCES

1.
Fader A. Ultra‐Orthodox Jewish interiority, the Internet, and the crisis of faith. HAU: J Ethnogr Theory. 2017;7(1):185–206.
2.
Pirutinsky S, Cherniak AD, Rosmarin DH. COVID‐19, mental health, and religious coping among American orthodox Jews. J Relig Health. 2020;59(5):2288–301.
3.
Hoffnung G, Feigenbaum E, Schechter A, Guttman D, Zemon V, Schechter I. Children and telehealth in mental healthcare: what we have learned from COVID‐19 and 40,000+ sessions. Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice; 2021.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice
Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice
Pages: 141

History

Received: 4 March 2021
Accepted: 6 March 2021
Published online: 10 May 2021
Published in print: Fall/Autumn 2021

Authors

Details

Achieve Behavioral Health, Monsey, New York, USA (I. Schechter, G. Hoffnung)
Achieve Behavioral Health, Monsey, New York, USA (I. Schechter, G. Hoffnung)

Notes

Correspondence
Dr. Isaac Schechter, Achieve Behavioral Health, 404 Route 59, Airmont, NY 10952, USA
Email: [email protected]

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