Telehealth appointments: making them work

Getting ready for a telehealth appointment

To get the most out of telehealth for your child, it’s important to prepare.

Questions to ask the health service before the appointment

How long will the appointment be?
How do I access the appointment? Will you send me a link, do I log on to your system, or will you call me?
Is there anything I need to do or prepare before the appointment, like reports or photos? How do I send reports and photos to you?

Organising information

Read any information you’ve been given about the appointment.
Gather everything you need so it’s handy. This might include reports, photos or video, plus a notepad to write down what the health professional says.
Think about and write down what you want to get out of the appointment and any questions you want to ask.

Organising yourself and your child

Think about the best place for the appointment. A quiet space where you won’t be interrupted is good.
Make sure your child has eaten and been to the toilet before the appointment.
Think about whether you want a support person at the appointment. They could care for your child or your child’s siblings while you talk with the health professional. It can also help to have someone to write down what the health professional says.

Setting up for a telehealth video conference

Make sure you have access to a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. You also need a good internet connection. If this is a problem, contact the service and let them know. There might be other options.
Turn your device on and get ready about 15 minutes before the appointment. If you can, test the technology before the appointment to make sure it works. You can also test the audio and video on your device.
Arrange your device’s camera and your seats so both you and your child can see and hear the health professional, and they can see and hear both of you.

Preparing children for a telehealth appointment

If it’s your child’s first telehealth appointment, it’s a good idea to prepare your child for the experience.

Younger children (3-8 years)

Talk with your child about what to expect at the appointment. Tell your child they’ll be seeing and/or speaking to a health professional and explain why. For example, ‘We’re going to talk to the doctor about making your eczema better’.
Explain that you’ll be talking to the health professional online or on the phone. For example, ‘When we see the GP, we’ll stay at home and talk to them on the computer. It’ll be like when we talk to Nan on the computer’.
Ask your child whether they have any questions about the appointment and answer them as best as you can. If you don’t know the answer, tell your child you’ll ask the health professional. Let your child know it’s OK for them to ask the health professional questions too.

Older children and teenagers (9-15 years)

Talk with your child about whether they want you to be at the appointment. If your child isn’t sure, you could suggest you start the appointment together. If your child feels comfortable, they could continue the appointment without you.
Talk with your child about what to expect. For example, ‘We have an appointment with the GP today. They might want to talk with you on your own for part of the appointment if you’re comfortable with that’.
Practise how your child might talk to the health professional and what your child is going to say.
Let your child know that it’s OK if they don’t feel comfortable talking with the health professional. For example, ‘It’s OK if you don’t want to talk to the GP. I can tell them what they need to know. But it would be good for you to meet them and listen to what they say’.
Ask your child if they have any questions and answer them as best you can. For example, teenagers might feel worried about being overheard if they’re seeing the health professional alone. You could assure your child by saying, ‘You can talk to the GP in the lounge room with the door shut. I’ll go into the kitchen and put the radio on, so I won’t overhear you’.

Managing telehealth appointments with children: tips for you

These tips can help you get the most out of telehealth appointments with children:

Say at the start what you want to get out of the appointment. For example, ‘We’re hoping to understand how best to monitor the condition’ or ‘I want to understand the side effects of the medication’.
Let the health professional know when you don’t understand something or when they’ve got something wrong. In in-person appointments, health professionals can often tell when you’re confused or uncertain by reading body language. But this is harder to do in a telehealth appointment, so it helps if you tell them.
Write down the key things that the health professional says, or have a support person do that for you. It’s OK to ask the health professional to pause while you do this. It’s also OK to go over these points with the health professional at the end of the appointment.
Make sure you know what will happen after the appointment. For example, will your child need another appointment? If so, when will it be? Do you know how to contact the health service if you need information before the next appointment?

During the appointment: tips to help things go well for children

When the appointment starts the health professional will check you can see and/or hear them. They might also ask who’s in the room with you.

Younger children (3-8 years)
It’s OK if your child doesn’t interact very much with the health professional. The professional knows it can be challenging and they’ll try to be supportive.

These tips can help things go well:

Help your child do what the health professional needs them to do. For example, if the GP wants to see a rash on your child’s tummy, get your child into the right position in front of the camera.
Have some toys handy for your younger child to play with during the appointment.
Have another adult with you who can play with your child.
Turn off the self-view video if your child gets distracted by looking at themselves.

Older children and teenagers (9-15 years)
Older children and teenagers can also find it hard to discuss their symptoms with a health professional online or on the phone.

These tips can help things go well:

At the start of the appointment, encourage your child to say what they want to get out of it. This can help older children and teenagers feel in control during the appointment.
At the end, encourage your child to ask any questions that they have.
Let your child have some or all of the appointment on their own, if that feels right for your child.

Managing technical issues
Tell the health professional if you’re having any technical issues like problems with the connection, sound or video. If you’re in a video conference and the video is freezing or the sound is breaking up, it can sometimes help to turn off the video and just use audio. If you lose the connection, try to reconnect. If that doesn’t work, call the health service to let them know what’s happened and ask what to do next.

Your child might have a longer-term relationship with some health professionals – for example, they might have ongoing speech therapy or occupational therapy sessions. In this situation, it’s a good idea to tell the health professional a little bit about your child and their interests. This can help the professional to build rapport. They can get children talking about their interests, which can lead to a conversation about their health needs.

When a telehealth appointment doesn’t go well: what to do

It’s OK if a telehealth appointment doesn’t go to plan – for example, if your video keeps dropping out, or your child’s sibling needs your attention.

Just let the health professional know that the appointment isn’t working for you. They might be make some changes so you can keep going. For example, they might be able to switch from video to a phone call if that makes it easier for you to care for a younger child.

If things really aren’t working, you can reschedule the appointment.