Impact of Telehealth on Engagement in Psychotherapy and/or Medication Treatment

In the present study, investigators aim to (1) adapt the Making Connections Intervention (MCI) as an intervention to address telehealth engagement and examine whether this targeted intervention can improve youth engagement in telehealth treatment; and (2) assess attitudes towards help-seeking and therapeutic alliance from both the youth and clinician viewpoint to examine the impact of these factors on engagement in telemental health treatment. Forty adolescent participants ages 12-18 will be randomized to either telehealth treatment as usual (TAU) plus the telehealth Making Connections Intervention (MCI-T) engagement session or telehealth TAU alone and followed for 12 weeks from baseline assessment. All clinicians will receive training in the MCI-T intervention and provide either MCI-T + usual care or usual care only depending on the condition to which the adolescents are randomized. All evaluations and therapy sessions will be done over telehealth platform.