The REA methodology prioritises the use of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and guidelines in order to utilise pre-existing high-quality rigorous research, to limit unnecessary duplication, and increase the rapidness of the review (Varker et al., 2014). A search was conducted in July, 2016 to identify the most recent systematic review relevant to the research questions. The search identified two high quality, recent systematic reviews. The first of these systematic reviews was conducted by Backhaus et al. (2012). This paper reviewed studies published between 1997 and 2010 which investigated therapy delivered via videoconferencing technology and covered areas such as: the type of psychological disorders investigated and clinical outcomes, as well as the populations studied, satisfaction ratings, therapeutic alliance, and attrition rates of OVC. An additional systematic review by Simpson and Reid (2014a) was also identified. This paper reviewed studies published between 1990 and 2013 which focussed on the therapeutic alliance in OVC. The REA also considered studies published after the cut off dates of these respective reviews up to July 2016. Search terms As discussed, a problem in this area of research is that multiple terms are often used interchangeably (e.g., telehealth, videoconferencing, e-therapy, etc.). Thus, given this issue and the scope of the current study, a large number of different search terms and combinations were used to identify papers relevant to the research questions. Terms such as counselling”, “telehealth”, “online “videoconferencing”, “therapeutic alliance”, alliance”, health”, “working “satisfaction”, “mental “veterans”, “depression”, stress”, and of life” were all used in different “anxiety”, “posttraumatic “quality combinations. An example of the search strategy conducted using the PsycINFO database is shown in Appendix 2. Paper selection The following inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to determine which papers were eligible to be included in the review: Inclusion Criteria:
The REA methodology prioritises the use of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and guidelines in order to utilise pre-existing high-quality rigorous research, to limit unnecessary duplication, and increase the rapidness of the review (Varker et al., 2014). A search was conducted in July, 2016 to identify the most recent systematic review relevant to the research questions. The search identified two high quality, recent systematic reviews. The first of these systematic reviews was conducted by Backhaus et al. (2012). This paper reviewed studies published between 1997 and 2010 which investigated therapy delivered via videoconferencing technology and covered areas such as: the type of psychological disorders investigated and clinical outcomes, as well as the populations studied, satisfaction ratings, therapeutic alliance, and attrition rates of OVC. An additional systematic review by Simpson and Reid (2014a) was also identified. This paper reviewed studies published between 1990 and 2013 which focussed on the therapeutic alliance in OVC. The REA also considered studies published after the cut off dates of these respective reviews up to July 2016. Search terms As discussed, a problem in this area of research is that multiple terms are often used interchangeably (e.g., telehealth, videoconferencing, e-therapy, etc.). Thus, given this issue and the scope of the current study, a large number of different search terms and combinations were used to identify papers relevant to the research questions. Terms such as “telehealth”, “online counselling”, “videoconferencing”, “therapeutic alliance”, “working alliance”, “satisfaction”, “mental health”, “veterans”, “depression”, “anxiety”, “posttraumatic stress”, and “quality of life” were all used in different combinations. An example of the search strategy conducted using the PsycINFO database is shown in Appendix 2. Paper selection The following inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to determine which papers were eligible to be included in the review: Inclusion Criteria:
Question%2013%20Online%20Video%20Counselling%20Technical%20Report%20March%202017.docx