Tele-mental health support community during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran: Action of State Welfare Organization

The rapid outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has forced most countries to take severe public health measures, including the closure of most mental health outpatient services and some inpatient units. This has led to a major transformation in the way mental health interventions are provided and has suddenly created the need to adapt and expand Tele-Mental Health (TMH) care around the world. Iranian health officials have chosen various strategies to manage COVID-19, and the State Welfare Organization (SWO) has turned to TMH services. Shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic, the SWO set up an intelligent electronic system for psychological self-assessment of people in the community. Therefore, the purposes of the present study are to introduce the action of SWO regarding TMH, and also to highlight the benefits and challenges of its implementation. There is ample evidence that the most effective measure is the rapid implementation of TMH, which can be considered by health policymakers because its use can help reduce patient and clinician infection risk, decrease mortality, and alleviate the burden on health care providers and the health system during the COVID-19 pandemic. •TMH has the unique potential to address the psychological side effects of social distance.•The SWO of Iran can use TMH as one strategy to help accomplish social distancing and medical distancing.•SWO was able to implement an intelligent electronic system using TMH.•Setting up such a smart electronic remote system in Iran has various advantages and challenges.•SWO has to consider the challenges and create a proper platform to take advantages of TMH tools.