ABSTRACT
The sudden rise in coronavirus cases unmasked the vulnerabilities in the mental health system, specifically, community-based outreach programs. Frontline workers were left to bear the burden of enacting new ways of engaging clients using digital tools. Implementing digital strategies across the mental health system, often, resulted in frontline workers exercising discretion to manage dilemmas presented during the pandemic. Inadequate resources, vague telehealth policies, and minimal guidance around health and safety guidelines left both clients and frontline workers disenfranchised. This chapter will use the street-level bureaucracy framework to explore the existing systemic and practice dilemma’s that were exasperated by the pandemic and offer ways that technology can be used to engage clients both during a crisis and beyond.
