The Psychological Services Center Shifts to Teletherapy, with a Coordinator at the Hub from Home 

Psychological Services Center office manager Carrie Fonda strikes a humorous pose with some of the tech paraphernalia she requires to balance the center's new shift to teletherapy.

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 7, 2020) — Transforming the in-person Psychological Services Center into a completely online therapy operation within a week seems like an act of wizardry. But to Office Manager Carrie Fonda, working at home but smack dab in the hub of the action, being among a group of talented people who are flexible, creative, adaptive and, most of all, have concern for clients and each other, made the move to “teletherapy” better than supernatural.

“The genuine caring about others, and the shared mission, has kept everyone focused on ‘what can I do to help make this happen,’” said Fonda. She praised PSC Director Dr. George Litchford’s “clear vision,” in making it the goal of the staff to have teletherapy mirror the way things work at the Center — one of the few mental health clinics providing services to low income families in the Capital District.

Fonda recalled how, during the week of March 9, “we started to have a few clients cancel due to health concerns, having to ride buses, thereby risking exposure. We stopped seeing clients on the 12th to allow us time to determine a plan of action. I was at the office on the 12th and 13th, setting things up toward beginning teletherapy with all indications we would move in that direction.”

“The transition was quite complicated,” said Litchford, “because we had to develop ways to create HIPAA-compliant mental health electronic records and psychotherapy via teletherapy. We had to also create individual portals for students to record their sessions and to coordinate their treatment and supervision with their licensed psychology faculty supervisors.”

All the student therapists at PSC, enrolled in UAlbany’s American Psychology Association-accredited psychology doctoral training programs, are unlicensed. “So, moving to teletherapy required a great deal of close coordination between the students, their supervisor, myself, the University’s legal counsel, the College of Arts and Sciences’ IT services, the business office and the chief information officer,” said Litchford.

And nearly all these essential activities, he added, “had to be coordinated through the PSC office with Ms. Carrie Fonda, who was working from home.”

Fonda’s colleague, Clinical Assistant Professor Jennifer Weil Malatras, has a similar impression of Fonda’s role in the transition. “Carrie was instrumental in helping coordinate the millions of pieces it took to have PSC maintain continuity of care to our clients in the midst of the pandemic. She worked in concert with the faculty and doctoral student trainees and went above and beyond, showing extraordinary dedication to the operation and to our clients — she is surely an essential employee."

Litchford, PSC faculty and Fonda had a Zoom meeting on Sunday, March 15, to discuss concepts and steps for moving forward. They dedicated the following week to reaching out to offices to explore any legal considerations; getting things established technically for teletherapy; allowing student counselors to contact their clients to determine who was still interested in continuing therapy; and determining resources — including internet, computers, smart phones, flip phones, and knowledge and or comfort with Zoom.

“In addition,” said Fonda, “I was allowed time to begin building various platforms and alternative means to do what we do when in the office — but now with the need to create ways to do it all virtually,” said Fonda. “I have been working from home since, still building the structure, adapting to the needs that have become evident through application and experience.”

The result of the efficient changeover was that PSC only suffered an initial 18 percent drop in clientele, and more clients have returned since. Assisted by PSC's assistant director, graduate student Rena Pazienza, who Fonda says “has been a great complement and colleague to push things around with,” Fonda has continued the standard office management tasks as well, such as contacting clients and managing voice messages.

She likens her post to “air traffic control” in helping PSC run much like a medical practice — in this case, one that completely transformed its way of delivering care in a week’s time.

“I value growth and learning; and have always pushed up my sleeves and dug in when faced with any challenge,” she said. “I am certainly just one of many who have had to launch into action in new and sometimes challenging ways these past weeks. As I told one colleague, ‘We are all on a lovely, long learning curve — but everybody is learning lots, and that it is a good thing!’”

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