Modality and terminology changes for behavioral health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Kimberly S Elliott; Eman H Nabulsi; Nicholas Sims-Rhodes; Vandy Dubre; Emily Barena; Nelly Yuen; Michael Morris; Sarah M Sass; Bridget Kennedy; Karan P Singh

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1265087

Modality and terminology changes for behavioral health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 5:14:1265087. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1265087. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Healthcare Policy, Economics and Management, University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center, Tyler, TX, United States.
² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, United States.
³ Robert R. Muntz Library, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, United States.
⁴ Department of Psychology and Counseling, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted healthcare professionals to implement service delivery adaptations to remain in compliance with safety regulations. Though many adaptations in service delivery were reported throughout the literature, a wide variety of terminology and definitions were used.

Methods: To address this, we conducted a PRISMA review to identify service delivery adaptations across behavioral healthcare services in the United States from March 2020 to May 2022 and to identify variations in terminology used to describe these adaptations. We identified 445 initial articles for our review across eight databases using predetermined keywords. Using a two-round screening process, authors used a team approach to identify the most appropriate articles for this review.

Results: Our results suggested that a total of 14 different terms were used to describe service modality changes, with the most frequent term being telehealth (63%). Each term found in our review and the frequency of use across identified articles is described in detail.

Discussion: Implications of this review such as understanding modality changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond are discussed. Our findings illustrate the importance of standardizing terminology to enhance communication and understanding among professionals.

Keywords: COVID-19; behavioral health; behavioral health modality; pandemic; telehealth; telemedicine.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Payments were made through grant funding ($900,000.00) from the Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC)- this is an unrestricted research grant awarded. The funder had no input or influence on the development of or conduct of the research presented in this manuscript. The project was partially funded through HCSC/BCBSTX, Affordable Cures Grant #1122327.