Learn about our 96% Telehealth Satisfaction Rate!
New England ABA is now offering telehealth ABA services and has openings available in select areas! Many of our clients have already experienced a high level of success engaging in telehealth. In fact, 96% of respondents in a recent survey indicated they are satisfied with our telehealth offering.
fAQs - Is telehealth the right choice for my family?
What does the initial set-up entail?
Your NE-ABA team will create your own internal Google login within our HIPAA compliant platform. Your team will then contact you to walk you through how to login, find your therapy schedule, and join your sessions. We will also provide assistance for login issues and have created available connection tutorials to assist with the transition to a telehealth environment.
Do I need a specific hardware/device to participate in NE-ABA Telehealth?
NE-ABA’s Telehealth platform is built within Google’s cloud-based Meet system and can be accessed with any device, including a Smartphone, that has access to the internet.
Is the platform secure?
Yes, your privacy and security are very important to us. You may have heard that many insurers are currently allowing non-HIPAA compliant platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. NE-ABA’s telehealth platform is built within our existing, HIPAA compliant Google system. Google provides the following protections as a part of our shared platform (link here for source):
- In Google Meet, all data is encrypted in transit by default between the client and Google for video meetings on a web browser, on the Android and iOS apps, and in meeting rooms with Google meeting room hardware.
- Meet adheres to IETF security standards for Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP).
- For every person and for every meeting, Meet generates a unique encryption key, which only lives as long as the meeting, is never stored to disk, and is transmitted in an encrypted and secured RPC (remote procedure call) during the meeting setup.
I am concerned about others potentially joining my Telehealth sessions and showing inappropriate content. Is this possible?
- Google Meet also provides multiple measures to prevent hijacking attempts:
- Google Meet makes it difficult to programmatically brute force meeting IDs (this is when a malicious individual attempts to guess the ID of a meeting and make an unauthorized attempt to join it) by using codes that are 10 characters long, with 25 characters in the set.
- Google Meet limits the ability of external participants to join a meeting more than 15 minutes in advance, reducing the window in which a brute force attack can even be attempted.
- External participants cannot join meetings unless they’re on the calendar invite or have been invited by in-domain participants.
What if my son/daughter is not able to sit and attend to a screen for the whole duration of a therapy session?
- We understand that our clients are unlikely to sit and attend for the entire duration of any session, whether it be via telehealth or in-person. Your therapy team will work directly with you on strategies that slowly build your child’s motivation to engage with her/his therapists during sessions and always work at your child’s pace and response to treatment.
What is the expectation on the parent/caregiver during a Telehealth session?
- We know that families have been handed multiple new jobs in our current pandemic environment (teacher, counselor, etc.) and it is not our intention to add another. Your clinical team will work with you to create a consistent plan that works for your individual child. Common parent involvement for telehealth sessions is assisting with joining the session, providing coached redirection as needed, and supplying reinforcement on a predetermined schedule.
- We can report that one of the main benefits we have heard from both our clinicians and clients is how telehealth has allowed parents to feel more in control of the therapy process.
What if I feel that my child does not have the prerequisite skills to engage in telehealth?
- Your clinical team will work with you to tailor the telehealth model to fit your child’s needs. Similar to our home/community-based therapy model, we want to start treatment with successful sessions! Some examples of what our clinicians have done to make this happen are:
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- Starting with less than a full session duration and scale up the duration your child gets more comfortable.
- Build rapport through the video platform and work on attending skills before moving into more skill-building instruction.
- Our clinicians can teach you as the caregivers some easy tools to engage with your child while we are there on the screen.
- Work with you on how your child's daily routine has changed during this challenging time and its impact on your family in order to focus on 1-2 high priority goals first.
My child is used to using the device (e.g. iPad, Smartphone) to watch videos and play games. Would this affect therapy?
- Our Behavior Analysts have extensive training in this regard and can employ a range of strategies and treatment options. For some, the clinician can control the content from their side of the screen. For others, we can teach your child how to tolerate brief pauses from technology and build up to longer periods of time. It may seem hard at first but over time this helps your child develop a set of coping skills for when natural interruptions need to occur (e.g. device battery dies, another family member needs the device, the device is broken, etc.).
