Adjusting telehealth practices for low-resource families

During the pandemic, many families were forced to go online to try to access diagnostic assessment, services, intervention and education. While telehealth services have reached the homes and served the needs of many families, its usefulness has been variable. Early research showed that while there was an 80% increase in use of telehealth overall, families living in rural communities, those of Hispanic heritage and those on Medicaid were not utilizing important telehealth services to the same extent. Dr. Villalobos will study the sociodemographic factors of families utilizing autism services both before and during the pandemic to understand how socioeconomic factors influenced telehealth usage. In this way, telehealth and other models of care can be improved so that the disparity around access to telehealth can be mitigated and more families can be served with existing resources.