HJNO Sep/Oct 2020

48 SEP / OCT 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS providers safely once the danger of infec- tion was understood. The move to a virtual platform had to occur rapidly for therapists and clients to maintain their supportive relationships, and for those sharply impacted emotion- ally to rapidly gain access to a behavioral health professional. To do this required both providers and patients to maneuver the technology, address the issues of priva- cy, and understand and interpret laws and billing rules that were softened or waived due to the crisis. So now that we are a few months out from this disruption of our tradition- COLUMN MENTAL HEALTH Behavioral Health Therapy in the VirtualWorld AS humans evolved, we developed sophis- ticated assessment skills based on observ- ing and interpreting how others walk, talk, move their hands, and emote with their eyes and mouth. Interpreting these cues is important for rapidly establishing rapport, but what happens when a natural face- to-face encounter in an office or clinic is upended due to the widespread risk of in- fection? Due to the community outbreak of the coronavirus, both therapists and their pa- tients, or clients, have had to rapidly adapt to reading and accurately interpreting non-verbal cues in a virtual environment. Forming a connection or engagement is the basis of a therapeutic relationship between a therapist and their client. By mid-March, it was clear that non-emer- gent, in- and outpatient, behavioral health appointments had to be transitioned to telephonic, or to the virtual world of tele- therapy, for the health of providers and clients. While the move to virtual appoint- ments started a couple of years ago for some private and larger providers, most providers were preparing for the move to occur in the next few years. Most did not have the technology or experience to con- vert immediately to virtual appointments, though many did. Virtual and telephon- ic appointments would become the only formats to keep clients connected to their