Delivering mental health services digitally: Group sessions
How two trusts built on their existing provision of remote one-to-one services and expanded them into remote services for groups during COVID-19.
Group sessions are a core part of delivering mental health services. However, due to the social distancing and lockdown measures in the UK from March 2020, many face-to-face group sessions were initially stopped.
This briefing looks at how two trusts built on their existing provision of remote one-to-one services, and expanded them into remote services for groups. It looks at the specific areas of focus for each, and the next steps they will take to continue this offer. It also provides recommendations in the short, medium and long term for other trusts considering remote group services.
Key points
- Remote consultations via phone or video are already delivered in many trusts on a one-to-one basis, but different issues are presented when expanding this approach to group
sessions. - Remote group sessions require a different way of working for staff, so full and ongoing training and support is needed to ensure they are confident to deliver effective group
sessions remotely. - The issue of patient confidentiality must be reassessed when conducting group sessions across several remote locations.
