TPC Journal-V6, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 4 391 members provided guidance that conflicted with policies published on their Web site or in their newsletter. For instance, many state board personnel who were contacted indicated that telemental health services were permitted as long as state laws were followed. In all 16 cases, the licensure board staff added information not available publicly. This information was excluded from the data, as it was not representative of an official, public policy. Only one state, New Mexico, explicitly prohibited professional counselors from providing mental health services online. Lastly, we compared the terms used in state licensure board policies across mental health professions. The term used most often by counseling ( n = 7) and social work ( n = 8) state licensure boards was electronic counseling or therapy ( n = 7). The term most prevalent among psychology state licensure boards was telehealth ( n = 6). Discussion With only 43% of mental health state licensure boards issuing at least a minimal policy regarding the use of telemental health services, mental health professionals are left without clear guidelines for acquiring proper training, educating clients and following sound procedures for using telemental health services to work with clients. Support and education may be warranted for licensure boards whose members may not have the time or expertise to craft policies based on evidence-based practice or best practice guidelines. Among the states that do have policies, the data demonstrate that state licensure boards’ policies differ in terminology. With 19 telemental health-related terms identified in state licensure boards’ policies, the mental health profession lacks consensus as telemental health services have grown over the last decade. Agreement or consistency is needed for effective conversations among researchers, educators and mental health providers to ultimately provide clear guidance to clinicians and clinicians-in-training. Mental health providers seeking to identify state policies regarding telemental health may search for online therapy , when their state uses one of 19 broader terms such as electronic means . The average mental health provider is likely unaware that nearly 20 different terms are used among state licensure boards, let alone aware of which term may be used to identify the laws in their respective state. Researchers, educators and state licensure board staff members should consider selecting the terms they use to include the common language of mental health providers. By narrowing the use of terms, state licensure boards would ensure mental health providers greater access to policies. Inconsistent terminology leads to a number of problems. Since telemental health has grown over time and been through several iterations of research and development, some terms may be associated with one or more periods of development. Employers posting jobs in telemental health may identify the position with one term (e.g., telebehavioral health therapist) while a job seeker may use another search term (e.g., online counselor). Researchers also may have difficulty finding related research on telemental health services when there are many terms used for the same concept (e.g., cyberpsychology, Internet therapy, online counseling, Web therapy, e-counseling). Inconsistent terminology could hinder the development and dissemination of the body of research supporting telemental health services. In addition, state licensure boards may consider how restrictions meant for one mode of services (e.g., text-based counseling) will impact another mode (e.g., video-based counseling). State licensure