Telephone therapy: call for help.

1. Many disabled people are unable to take advantage of community resources because they cannot leave their homes, but the telephone can provide a link to psychotherapeutic services. 2. In both telephone and office therapy, the therapist orients members to the group, suggests an arena in which goals might be established, encourages verbalizations, sharing of concerns, strategies for solving problems, and assesses the psychodynamics of the therapeutic situation. 3. Psychotherapy via telephone can provide significant benefits to people who formerly were barred from services. Telephone therapy requires the therapist's commitment to the challenge of mastering a new technique and to altering fee structures to allow those on fixed incomes to be served.