Item Details

abstract

The mental health of women veterans is influenced by gender-specific social and biological factors, and thus, they have gender-specific mental health care needs. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) telemental health system promises to improve the availability and quality of care for women veterans. This thesis begins with a brief history of telemedicine and a description of telemedicine practices available to women veterans through the VA. The second chapter discusses how the VA health care system is failing to serve the gender-specific mental health needs of women veterans and how telemental health services are a promising strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health care. The third chapter examines the challenges and advantages of telemental health care for fulfilling the moral responsibilities of obtaining informed consent to treatment, protecting patient privacy and confidentiality, and establishing an effective therapeutic relationship. Finally, the fourth chapter argues that, with appropriate safeguards, the benefits of telemental health care outweigh its risks, and that the expansion of telemental health services to meet the need for accessible and effective mental health care for women veterans is justified by considerations of reciprocal and compensatory justice.

subject

Bioethics

Telemental health care

women veterans

contributor

Hall, Mary Harriet (author)

Moskop, John C (committee chair)

Iltis, Ana S (committee member)

Behar, Diane (committee member)

date

2020-05-29T08:35:42Z (accessioned)

2020-05-29T08:35:42Z (available)

2020 (issued)

degree

Bioethics (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/96799 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

Realizing the Benefits and Avoiding the Pitfalls of Telemental Health Care for Women Veterans

type

Thesis