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A Preliminary Investigation of Telehealth-Focused Supervision in Clinical Psychology Pre-doctoral Internships and Post-doctoral Fellowships Before and After the Onset of COVID-19

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Abstract

Telehealth-focused supervision within clinical psychology pre-doctoral internships and post-doctoral fellowships can increase trainee competency and comfort, fostering outreach of evidence-informed mental health services to underserved locations. As no formal standards or accreditation requirements for telehealth-focused supervision currently exist, implementation of the important training consideration among both internships and fellowships remains unclear. To clarify field offerings and inform initiatives, the current study evaluated practices among clinical psychology pre-doctoral internships and post-doctoral fellowships before and after COVID-19. Seventy-four internships and 29 fellowships completed REDCap-hosted demographic and telehealth training surveys. Analyses revealed increases in telehealth-focused supervision offerings after the onset of COVID-19 for internships (23.0% before, 93.2% after) and fellowships (31.0% before, 96.6% after), with the most endorsed types after COVID-19 being core faculty/staff-led live individual, live group, scheduled/non-live individual, and scheduled/non-live group. Programs mandating a specific amount of supervision time to telehealth-related topics also increased after COVID-19, but remained < 50%. Data suggested that clinical psychology pre-doctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships have begun integrating telehealth-focused supervision into their training models. While a clear positive first step, less than 50% of programs mandating a form of telehealth-focused supervision also suggests a need for improvement to foster trainee competency in telehealth utilization. Programs should continue to adapt supervisory model to mirror field evolution.

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Data is available upon request to authors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 2U54GM104942-07

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Jonathan G. Perle, Alexandria R. Perle, David M. Scarisbrick & James J. Mahoney III

  2. Department of Neuroscience, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    David M. Scarisbrick & James J. Mahoney III

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  1. Jonathan G. Perle
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  2. Alexandria R. Perle
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  3. David M. Scarisbrick
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Correspondence to Jonathan G. Perle.

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The study was reviewed and approved by the West Virginia University Institutional Review Board (#2109411146). All participants provided online consent via a study information sheet.

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Perle, J.G., Perle, A.R., Scarisbrick, D.M. et al. A Preliminary Investigation of Telehealth-Focused Supervision in Clinical Psychology Pre-doctoral Internships and Post-doctoral Fellowships Before and After the Onset of COVID-19. J. technol. behav. sci. 9, 58–67 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00353-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00353-y

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