Davis Park stands in front of 11 older adult residents of the Los Angeles independent living facility Good Shepherd Manor – all but one of them African-American – and asks what they know about technology.
“How many of you know what videoconferencing is?”
One hand rises.
How many know how to use a computer? Three hands rise. How many want to know how to use a computer? More hands go up.
Head of the Front Porch Center for Wellbeing and Innovation, Park is visiting the modest facility’s dining room to kick off a cutting-edge behavioral health pilot program aimed directly at low-income, minority populations: telemental health.
By offering computer-based therapy sessions, telemental health has a promising future for older ethnic adults who face an uphill battle accessing services for common problems like depression and anxiety.
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