No matter what type of drug you’ve become addicted to, the road toward being able to manage your addiction is a lengthy one that’s filled with a wide range of treatments. One of the most modern treatments that’s being used as a remedy for addiction is telemedicine, a type of health care that’s provided remotely.[1] Addiction treatment involves a large number of different methods from detoxification to rehabilitation.[2] Even after you’ve gone through these treatments, extended care is often used as a means of keeping relapse at bay. Addiction telemedicine will assist you in getting the care that you deserve without needing to travel to different facilities.
What Is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine is becoming a very common form of health care due to its convenience for patients who may be unable to visit a doctor or spend time at a rehabilitation facility. Remote patient monitoring is possible with telemedicine, as are high-definition video connections that allow the patient to speak directly with the doctor. HIPAA-compliant applications can be used for these video chats to ensure patient confidentiality.[2]
Uses of Telemedicine for Addiction Treatment
The methods used with addiction telemedicine work in much the same way as telemedicine does for a wide array of other illnesses and diseases. Standard remote monitoring can be used as a means of identifying if you’re avoiding relapse properly. One-on-one therapy is another type of treatment that’s commonly administered during rehabilitation and is available with select telemedicine solutions. The best aspect of telemedicine is its versatility, which is backed up by the fact that it has proven to be highly effective in comparison to standard treatment. A recent VA telehealth efficacy study determined, through a sample size of more than 100,000 patients, that the results of telemedicine treatment for addiction matched or even exceeded the results of standard treatment.[3]
There are three key areas in which addiction treatment benefits from the usage of telemedicine, the most obvious of which is privacy. Traveling to a rehabilitation facility can be difficult to keep private from friends, extended family or co-workers, which could have adverse effects for your private life, even though this shouldn’t be the case. Telemedicine allows you to obtain treatment in your own home. By doing so, the only people you will likely be required to interact with over video chat include the telemedicine providers and other patients who are in group counseling with you.
Telemedicine also helps boost your access to addiction treatment as costs of treatment are reduced and the money you would have to pay for transportation to and from the treatment facility is excised altogether.[2] With the usage of telemedicine, providers of addiction care are able to handle a sizable amount of additional cases without negatively affecting the quality of the care you’re provided with. The third main benefit of telemedicine with addiction treatment is that it allows for schedule flexibility; you can make an appointment for whenever your calendar is open, which keeps you from having to put your life on hold during treatment.
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Resources:
[1] https://chironhealth.com/telemedicine/what-is-telemedicine
[2] https://chironhealth.com/blog/treating-addictions-telemedicine
[3] https://www.research.va.gov/currents/winter2015/winter2015-12.cfm