How Telehealth Makes Treatment Possible When Life Is Busy

Getting help for addiction shouldn’t depend on whether you can find a ride, take time off work, or sit in a waiting room without feeling judged. We sit down with Dr. Julia D'Alo from GRC’s Advanced Recovery Network to explain how telehealth addiction treatment is removing some of the biggest obstacles that keep people from starting care and staying in it long enough for recovery to take root. If you’ve ever thought “I can’t make treatment fit my life,” this conversation is for you.

We dig into the real-world barriers telehealth can solve, especially transportation challenges in rural areas and the time squeeze that hits parents, caregivers, and anyone working multiple jobs. We also talk about stigma and anxiety, and why joining therapy from home can feel safer for some people while still keeping them connected to a recovery community. Telehealth isn’t limited to a single video appointment either. We discuss how virtual rehab platforms can include encrypted messaging with your therapist, journaling, and educational modules that support continuity of care between sessions.

You’ll also hear how hybrid care works across the continuum of care, from stepping down after residential treatment into intensive outpatient (IOP) and outpatient services, with the flexibility to shift between in-person and virtual based on what a patient needs. Dr. D'Alo explains why telehealth is a long-term solution, including how medication-assisted treatment and medication management for opioid use disorder (such as buprenorphine or Suboxone) can be supported through telehealth, along with psychiatric care. 

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To learn more about GRC’s Advanced Recovery Network visit:
https://www.GatewayRehab.org
GRC’s Advanced Recovery Network 
Multiple Southwestern Pennsylvania Locations  
800-472-1177 

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Recovery Roll Call, where hope has a home. Here, the experts of GRC's Advanced Recovery Network, a not-for-profit with over 50 years of experience, offer a full continuum of care with 16 locations across southwestern Pennsylvania and statewide telehealth services. GRC's Advanced Recovery Network provides individualized evidence-based treatment and family programming. Our goal is to help increase knowledge on the disease of addiction, share the many roads to recovery, and reduce stigma in our communities. All right, let's take roll.

Why Telehealth Expands Access

SPEAKER_02 0:48

From rural communities to busy families, telehealth is opening doors to care that once felt out of reach. Welcome everyone. I'm Melanie Winter, co-host and producer here in the studio with Dr. Julia Diallo from GRC's Advanced Recovery Network. Dr. Diallo, how's it going today? It's going great. Great. Dr. Diallo, let's start with this important topic. How does telehealth expand access to addiction treatment?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

So telehealth is a really incredible modality of care because you don't need much to do it. You need a phone. And most people have a phone. And you know, we all need care, you know, despite our social determinants of health, meaning whether or not we have a car or we have child care in the evening, or we um, you know, work one or multiple jobs, a single parent or um uh or you know, or a married couple, but accessing care can be tricky when it requires a lot of time and it requires frequent visits. So um telehealth really allows us to connect with people in the morning, in the evening, um, and in various ways, which I'm hoping we get to talk about today because it's more than just an audio visual appointment, like a Zoom call, sort of like what what you and I are doing right now. So um I'm interested, I'm interested in uh uh sort of sharing that with you or excited to share that with you.

Transportation And Time Barriers

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Great. Well, let's talk about this. What barriers to treatment does telehealth help overcome?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yeah, so um like I was mentioning before, I mean, so uh transportation is probably the biggest one. So, you know, at GRC, we have nine physical locations uh for outpatient, but not everyone lives close to one of those. And um, and you know, if you have to drive, you know, more than 30 minutes to an appointment and you're doing that multiple days a week, or if you have to take a bus and it takes you multiple hours to get to an appointment, um there's a strong likelihood that you will not um even start doing that treatment or continue engaged in that treatment for a long period of time. And given the fact that addiction is a chronic disease and really requires treatment over time, um, staying in treatment is really important. So we want to make it easy for people. So I would say transportation is probably or lack of transportation is probably one of the biggest ones. But additionally, um, even when, you know, people have um also, as I mentioned before, various other responsibilities in life that really take their time and uh and they just run out of hours in the day. The convenience of telehealth, I think, also can just make it um uh more attractive for for patients who want to access care, but also have busy lives.

Privacy And Stigma Relief

SPEAKER_02 4:08

And can telehealth reduce stigma by offering more privacy and flexibility?

Continuity Of Care With Hybrid

SPEAKER_01 4:14

It can. So, you know, some people really prefer to be in a group setting in a physical location with people. And um other uh people really struggle with that. And so um, you know, we'll we'll get feedback from patients who will say, you know, if I couldn't do this from my dining room table or from my couch, I probably wouldn't do it because it I have a lot of anxiety, um uh even thinking about um going to a physical location and sitting in a room with other people. Um and this kind of helps me to be connected to a community, but also be in sort of the safety and comfort of my of my home.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

And really a continuation of of that discussion, how do virtual appointments support continuity of care for patients in recovery?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah, so um, you know, we use these appointments at various times. So a lot of times people are um they're finishing residential treatment and they are moving into an outpatient setting. And um we do something that's called intensive outpatient therapy, which is um multiple days a week for multiple hours at a time. And so sometimes, you know, again, it's like, oh, how am I gonna, how am I gonna pull that off? Well, the way you can pull it off is we can do it uh, you know, in the evening after you're done, after you're done with work. Or, you know, and as they move through the continuum of care and they step down in levels of care, sometimes they'll start out in person and then they'll say, okay, now I want to move to telehealth. So we use what's called a hybrid model, which allows us to do um care both in person and via telehealth. And I think that that really helps people. And the other thing too is that um, like I was alluding to before, the telehealth appointment itself is an audiovisual appointment, but there's a lot that happens in between those acute treatment episodes, whereby um people can or patients can um communicate with their therapist and with their care team through uh the app. So they have an app on their phone that's very much like a banking app, like you and I have. Um, or any app, you know, use an app to buy things on Amazon or to um, you know, uh buy tickets to uh a hockey game or something like that. So they have an app on their phone that's very much like that. And um that through that app, they can um message their therapist. We have uh uh private and um encrypted messaging. So they can say to their therapist, you know, oh, I forgot to tell you this, but I'm going to a party tonight and I'm really nervous about there being alcohol there. Um and the therapist can write them back. Um and they can journal. Um, there are educational modules. So the capability of the platform that we use is it's very sophisticated. Um, and the app that's associated with it is also um, you know, very, very useful for us to stay tethered to our patients in between treatment episodes. So that's also, I think, very key to why telehealth is so effective at keeping patients engaged.

Long-Term Care And Med Support

SPEAKER_02 7:26

You can really see the continuity of care in that. Yes. And our last question um this morning is do you see telehealth as a long-term solution or more of a supplement to in-person care?

Wrap-Up And How To Get Help

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Oh, I love that question. That's a great question. So so I see so I see it as a long-term solution because um, like I said, you can you can utilize it via like a hybrid model. And what's great about having this vast continuum of care that we have at GRC is we have virtually every level of care. And so there may be times when it's more appropriate and better for an individual to be in person, but you know, sustained recovery takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. And it's not something that happens in 28 days or in, you know, a five-day detox or something like that. So again, how can we make it so that it's really attainable and accessible to everyone? Whether you are, you know, a person who has, you know, housing instability or a CEO of a company, um, telehealth really meets the needs of all people and allows us to utilize it at different times in different ways to meet the needs of that individual. So, I mean, the other thing I'll add is that really everything that we do in person at GRC, we mirror in telehealth. So any level of outpatient care that you can get in person, you can get on your phone or on your home computer. And medications that we prescribe, like buprenorphine or suboxone for opiate use disorder, we can do that via telehealth. Um, those prescriptions are uh because that's a controlled substance, those are frequently prescribed. And so again, going to your doctor every week or every month can be hard. So um it's it's it's oftentimes better, honestly, to do it this way so that it's not interfering with your day-to-day. And then our psychiatric care, we also provide via telehealth. And again, you know, um sometimes that requires frequent visits, longer visits. Um, so it's just a really effective way to provide care uh along our whole continuum uh of care that we provide people.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Well, Dr. Diallo, thank you for sharing how telehealth is expanding access to treatment. We'll see everyone next time.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Thanks for joining Recovery Roll Call. Remember, recovery isn't a destination, it's a journey. One day longer, one day stronger. If you're a family member or loved one of someone struggling with addiction, help is close by. Visit gatewayrehab.org. Call 800-472-1177 or start a live chat with our team right on the website. GRC's Advanced Recovery Network. Hope has a home here. We'll see you next time.