In Balogun et. al.’s (2025) article, the reader gains insightful information about telehealth. The pandemic of COVID-19 set the stage for the rapid usage of telehealth in the social work field. I was surprised to read that an estimate of 21% of low-income households do not have reliable broadband internet and devices (Balogun et al.2005). As we keep moving forward, technology is becoming more essential, and still, a portion of the population is without a reliable device. It makes me question how we can provide reliable access to technology to this population. I agree with the authors on the benefits for the vulnerable population, but I also think that there needs to be programs to educate the use of technology to the vulnerable population, especially the elderly. The authors could have gone more in-depth on the cultural challenges and could have provided statistical data to reinforce the advantages and disadvantages of telehealth. I think the most significant challenge regarding the use of telehealth is ethics. It is storing and protecting data properly. Is the software reliable? Is the wifi secure? How can we know the social worker and the client are both protected? Overall, Balogun et al. (2025) presented information on telehealth that I have already experienced and have come across in my readings.
In Zhu et al.’s (2024) article, information is presented from practitioners’ perspectives. What surprised me was that not all practitioners experienced an increase in telehealth after COVID-19. My perspective was that after COVID-19, the use of technology increased across the board for every practitioner because it demonstrated how effective it can be. The article stated that it depended more on the provider’s specialty. The rate of telemental health use was not surprising, as I have noticed how insurance influences the type of telemental health use among most clients. Practitioners have different perspectives on the use of telemedicine going forward. Some stated they will expect to use telemedicine more often than others because it works for their specialty. Others state that the combination of in-person and video-based benefits their clients. It all depends on whether it benefits the client based on the provider’s specialty. Overall, I think telehealth is a great tool in technology, but there needs to be careful consideration on how it is being used. This reason I say this is because as stated before, it is sensitive information that is being handled through technology. There needs to be consistent training on how to use technology as it advances.
References
Balogun, A. K., Dada, S. N., Kazeem, O., & Bakare-Adesokan, K. A. (2025). Integrating telehealth services in social work practice for vulnerable groups. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 25(1), 1984–1991. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2025.25.1.0248
Zhu, D., Paige, S. R., Slone, H., Gutierrez, A., Lutzky, C., Hedriana, H., Barrera, J. F., Ong, T., & Bunnell, B. E. (2024). Exploring telemental health practice before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 30(1), 72–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X211025943
You make great points Diana! With the information that you discovered about the lack of access to broadband internet, do you think that providers should focus more on telehealth or in-person services? I can understand why practitioners would see this statistic and think “the majority of people DO have broadband access” versus how we are seeing it as “oh wow, that’s a big number”. It’s sort of like a cup half empty versus half full perspective. I do think that as social workers, we are viewing things through a different lens, so we DO see the gaps and the disparities and we have to make sure to try and fill those gaps in.
I like your ideas for filling in the gaps with education for vulnerable populations who may not have a strong grasp on the concept. I did a quick search and found that there are already classes set up for this in my city, but I was not aware of them, and I am not sure if this is because I do not work with the target population, or if there is a lack of advocacy and advertisement for these services. These classes can help bridge the gap for that population, IF they participate in them.
Going back to the stark statistic about lack of broadband access, what out of the box ideas do you have to fill that gap? I know that the expected answer is voting for legislation to help people gain access in their home, but I wonder if there are any ways that we as social workers can increase public access, or if there are programs where internet hotspots could be grant funded and loaned out by agencies that clients are connected with?
I found this report based on using Libraries as Telehealth hubs that was published in 2025. One idea that they reported was designating telehealth areas inside of librarys, so that the public can have private spaces that are already supplied with the necessary technology (Krupinksi, et al., 2025).
Krupinski, E., Abbey, D., Muralidaran, M., Steele, F., & Strawley, G. (2025). (rep.). Libraries as Telehealth Hubs: Bridging the Digital Divide and Expanding Health care Access. Retrieved 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11839511/.
Hi, Diana!
I like how you connected both articles to what you’ve already seen in the field. The 21% statistic of low-income households lacking reliable internet stood out to me too. It proves how telehealth can only help if people actually have the tools to use it. I also strongly agree that technology training, especially for vulnerable populations like older adults, is something we don’t talk about enough.
Your focus on ethics and data protection is very important. A lot of agencies cannot afford secure platforms, which creates risks for both clients and professionals. Your post made me think about what should be improved first. I am curious to know if you had to pick one area to address before the others (such as access, cultural barriers, or data security), which one do you think would make the biggest difference in making telehealth safer and more effective?
Hey there, Diana!
I really enjoyed your blog post. The 21% statistic also stood out to me. There is a real need for people, especially older adults, to be educated on how to use devices, and I don’t think society has caught up with that need yet. Ethics around privacy is a major concern, especially with the new AI tools being used to compromise data systems. I worry that very little of our private information is truly safe.
It was interesting to learn that social workers were the least likely to say they wanted to use telehealth post-pandemic. I agree with them. Certain kinds of social work, I think, should be done in person. Some forms of LCSW pay-per-session work translate fine to a virtual setting, but it remains a fundamentally human job. You raise some excellent points.
As to your question about what would make the biggest difference: I think we need to address the digital divide. There needs to be stronger emphasis on educating people as well. Perhaps libraries could help by offering free classes.
Diana,
The issue of broadband availability is an important one. The study referenced in Balogun utilized the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) “no broadband subscription” measure, which is a typical measure for broadband access. There has been significant improvement in those numbers since this survey, as it was pretty dated. Much of that improvement is thanks to the special subsidies during the pandemic and the infastructure bill that gave resources to states to increase access. The number is now closer to 11%. Again, an improvement, but not perfect. And that doesn’t deal with the realities of skills or utilization.
The authors in both of these articles are doing a literature review – trying to talk about the state of technology-mediated practice within the profession at the moment. And they both discussed the fact that ethical issues were very important and needed more detailed review – right? The other reality is that most organizations serving people from a health care perspective are required to follow HIPPA regulations, and they have strict requirements regarding the appropriate software with the appropriate protections.
I would have liked to hear a bit more about your thoughts in answering all the questions in the instructions. You made statements, but I was missing the why or why not part a bit. Just remember that when you start your work on blog post 2.
Dr P