Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Leading telemental healthcare programs are increasingly harnessing new technologies in innovative ways to broaden the reach of supported care for children and adolescents. Technology-based delivery methods drawing on synchronous videoteleconferencing can transcend geographic barriers to quality care and remotely provide real-time services to affected families, regardless of their proximity to an expert mental health facility. METHODS: The present review considers critical issues specific to family-based telemental healthcare, including: 1) Navigating varying levels of technological literacy across generations of participants; 2) deciding which family members to include in family-based telemental healthcare; 3) ensuring the safety of participants in family-based telemental healthcare; 4) optimizing therapeutic alliance and engagement in family-based telemental healthcare; 5) navigating logistical concerns in the conducting of sessions; and 6) ensuring privacy in family-based telemental healthcare. RESULTS: We discuss illustrations of recent child telemental healthcare advances that have focused explicitly on family-based treatment approaches, including Internet-delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and Internet-delivered family-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for early-onset OCD. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude with a consideration of future directions for the field of family-based telemental healthcare.