Patterns of Telehealth Use for Mental Health Treatment Among Hispanic Veterans

Abstract

Background: Video-to-home telehealth (VTH) is promising for increasing access to mental health (MH) services. VA Video Connect (VVC) facilitates video-based teleconferencing between patients and providers and can reduce barriers while maintaining clinical effectiveness. Little is known about the preferences of Hispanic veterans for VTH. Methods: A retrospective cohort investigation of VTH for MH care utilization among veterans having at least one MH visit from October 2019 to September 2020. The veterans consisted of 155,492 Hispanic/Latino and 1,544,958 non-Hispanic/Latino. VVC involved face-to-face synchronous video-based teleconferencing between patients and providers, enabling care at home or another private location. The main measures included the percentage of MH encounters delivered through VVC. Results: Compared with non-Hispanic veterans, Hispanic veterans had 3.28% greater percentage of VVC MH encounters. Furthermore, there was a 2.65% increase per month in percentage of VVC MH encounters. Conclusions: Contrary to preconceived notions, Hispanic veterans access VTH at higher rates than their non-Hispanic counterparts.

Keywords: COVID-19; Hispanic or Latino; mental health; telemedicine; veterans.