The behavioral health system and its response to COVID-19: A snapshot perspective

The global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. The magnitude, pace, and uncertainty of the pandemic have taxed systems and catalyzed innovation in many fields, including behavioral health. Behavioral health leaders have absorbed changing information about regulations and laws, proper use of personal protective equipment, isolation and quarantine, telepsychiatry practices (broadly defined here as the use of virtual and telephonic means to provide behavioral health care), and financial opportunities and challenges while attending to the mental health needs of local populations. This Open Forum reviews many of the adaptations of the behavioral health system in response to COVID-19 on the basis of a point-in-time snapshot and describes needed multidimensional policy and practice considerations for the future.