Tumbling Into Telepsychiatry in the COVID-19 Era: Challenges and Hope

The first forms of telepsychiatry were initiated as videoconferencing in the 1950s. Its use has steadily increased in recent decades. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of outpatient psychiatric encounters in the last couple of months have been switched to virtual in a rushed, desperate bid to keep care going. These virtual encounters have become a necessity to maintain mental health care, but the abrupt change has forced…