Conclusions
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SEPARATION
From the patients’ perspective, video consultations with mental health specialists in primary care are implementable, safe, and related to a positive impact on an individual’s lived experience. Our findings underscore that PCPs should (1) continue to proactively take on their distinctive role as gatekeepers for actively engaging patients, (2) apply such models to mitigate patients’ fear of being stigmatized for those with no prior experience with mental health care, and (3) regularly check whether certain patients need in-person services and if those receiving video consultations are beginning to feel alienated. Given the widespread nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing need for social distancing, mental health specialist video consultations embedded in primary care offer a promising approach for addressing pandemic-related decline in mental health and securing treatment engagement in vulnerable populations. In the post-pandemic future, mental health specialist video consultations in primary care can directly address patients’ preference for holistic management while maintaining therapeutic and spatial separation between mental and physical health [