Telemental Health Approaches for Trauma Survivors

The past couple of decades have witnessed a veritable explosion of technology development and services with nearly ubiquitous uptake of innovative electronic products. In fact, today about 40 % of the earth’s population has access to the Internet, and there are almost as many mobile phone subscriptions as there are people on the planet (International Telecommunications Union [ITU] 2014). Virtually overnight, we have become reliant on these technologies for many of our everyday activities, such as finding information, shopping, banking, and staying connected to friends and family. Modes of communication have multiplied to include options such as no-cost web-based video calling, instant messaging at home or on the go, and asynchronous microblogging tools for connected self-reflection. The latest generation of mobile phones, called smartphones, offers capabilities and functions that only a few short years ago were unimaginable or only available on stationary computers. As these technologies continue to transform our everyday lives, their potential to address the tremendous unmet mental healthcare needs of trauma survivors is also beginning to be realized through innovative telemental health (TMH) approaches.