Introduction to the Special Edition on Education and Training

This is an exciting dynamic time for telemental health education and training. Foundational work in telemental health competencies has been taking place for years. Clearly, the COVID pandemic accelerated the implementation and use of telemental health technologies into routine practice. With this rapid pivot to the use of telemental health technologies, the field has begun to embrace the foundational competency work that has been done and continues to be done while also utilizing the ongoing advice from major training organizations. However, to date, there is no consensus on how best to train mental health providers on how to provide telemental health care. The goal of this special edition was to publish a broad base of themes and topics with updates and practical advice for the reader interested in telemental health education and training. This special edition sought to elicit work done to date on telemental health education and training with a goal of publishing factors to be considered in creating such programs, descriptions of operational telemental health educational programs, and commentaries from those who have obtained considerable experience in this area. Three themes emerged from the published papers: Competencies, Telesupervision, and Specific Telemental Health Training programs. This issue begins to describe the educational work being done to support telemental health. Though a consensus has not yet been reached on how to best train providers on implementing telemental health into routine practice, this special edition provides the reader with practical recommendations and approaches to consider when developing and implementing training programs. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.