Eight Months of Telehealth for a State-Funded Project in Foster Care and Related Services: Progress Made and Lessons Learned
Open accessAbstract
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many behavior analysts and other health professionals modified their services for delivery via telehealth modalities. The transition to telehealth is especially important for providers working with foster youth who exhibit challenging behavior because these youth often move to another placement due to such behaviors. The primary objective of this article was to evaluate the extent to which service indicators for a state-funded team working with foster youth changed after the service delivery model changed from in-person to telehealth services. In particular, we evaluated changes in monthly count of client contacts, appointments, intakes, closed cases, and medication reviews. The secondary objective was to outline potential benefits and environmental barriers encountered by the team and to integrate our findings with the literature on behavior-analytic services provided via telehealth. Overall, results show that we maintained service quality with a broad range of behavioral interventions and increased overall client appointments. Given these outcomes, our team may continue to provide behavioral services via telehealth after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Telehealth service delivery for foster youth and families maintains service quality, improves access and engagement, and is perceived by users as beneficial.
“Telehealth service delivery for foster youth and families has been shown to maintain service quality, improve access and engagement, and be perceived by users as beneficial [13-15].”
From Implementation Considerations for Family-Based Telehealth Interventions for Youth in Foster Care: Focus Group Study With Child Welfare System Professionals (2023) · cites this paper as [15]
The Discussion reports that service indicators did not decline and appointments with families increased after the switch to telehealth, supporting maintained service delivery and greater engagement. The Overview of Telehealth describes increased access as a potential benefit, and its Therapist Satisfaction section reports that clinicians were satisfied. The paper does not establish that foster youth or families themselves perceived the service as beneficial. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA recent study indicated that telehealth service delivery for foster youth is comparable to in-person service delivery, and families attended more appointments via telehealth than in-person services.
“A recent study indicated that telehealth service delivery for foster youth is comparable to in-person service delivery, and families attended more appointments via telehealth than in-person services [15].”
From Implementation Considerations for Family-Based Telehealth Interventions for Youth in Foster Care: Focus Group Study With Child Welfare System Professionals (2023) · cites this paper as [15]
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- Authors
- Coon, J. C., Bush, H., & Rapp, J. T.
- Affiliations
- Auburn University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rapp, John T.
- Venue
- Behavior Analysis in Practice
- Published
- 2022-03-16
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1348-1360
- ISSN
- 1998-1929 (ISSN-L)
- 2196-8934
- PMC
- PMC8924942
- OpenAlex
- W4220833589
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Behavior Analysis in Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Keywords
- telemedicine, foster youth, behavioral problems, COVID-19 pandemic, foster care, service quality, medication review, barriers to telehealth
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