How to build trust with patients (& maintain it): Tips for behavioral healthcare providers

How to Build Trust with Patients: 5 Tips for Behavioral Health

Perhaps especially in a behavioral healthcare setting, building and maintaining a trusting relationship with patients is paramount.

But what creating that trust means can look different now than it may have in the past, as technology increasingly shapes how we interact with patients. It’s typically a sea of small changes that, over time, bridge the space between patient and provider.

The following tips can help any healthcare provider achieve this, but they’re specifically tailored to help behavioral health professionals discover how to build trust with patients. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Show Vulnerability & Empathy

To know is to be known. To understand others is to understand–and be open to sharing–yourself. While maintaining a sense of professionalism is, of course, important, so too is being willing to be transparent.

Empathy involves understanding the emotions of others, but it’s more than simple sympathy – it also requires understanding context, intention, and perspective. Stepping into the shoes of your patients is an important prerequisite to offering any sort of guidance.

2. Communicate Openly & Often

Patients appreciate knowing what’s going on throughout their care plan; this likely goes without saying. But when you reconsider what “communication” looks like, you can open up entirely new ways to connect with your patients.

Digital messaging, for instance, can facilitate interactions that offer a new angle into a patient’s everyday life. They can easily and quickly ask questions, share concerns, and send updates while they’re fresh on their minds.

Utilizing techniques and tools that allow you to extend communication beyond appointments can do wonders for improving closeness and trust.

3. Get to Know the Person, Not Just the Patient

Some level of detachment between healthcare providers and their patients is necessary. Becoming too personally involved can be professionally and personally troubling.

But it’s important to remember, too, that compassion and curiosity can go a long way. In behavioral health settings, which often provide long-term care, it’s especially key to develop rapport and an individual bond with each client or patient.

Get to know what each person you work with hopes to gain out of their care experience.

Beyond their symptoms, what motivates them to visit your office? What can you do to help them bring that sense of purpose to life?

4. Keep Your Promises

Trust is a two-way street – if you expect your client or patient to keep their word, it’s only fair that you do, too.

Follow through on commitments you create or goals you set, and treat each person you work with as a top priority.

Keeping detailed records that allow you to both visualize a patient’s entire history and get a snapshot of their current state is a great way to ensure you can stay on track.

5. Create Space

Patients are all too used to being dismissed, downplayed, or downright steamrolled by providers. In fact, it usually takes less than 30 seconds for patients to be interrupted by medical providers, according to one study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

But it’s easy to understand why it’s sometimes necessary to take the reins as a provider – it’s important to ensure that appointments don’t drag on for too long, after all, and that they achieve what they’re meant to.

Still, nothing hinders a genuine connection like a feeling of being a burden or feeling unseen. In some cases, that means letting patients speak without interruptions or counterpoints. In others, it might mean building the time to allow patients to ask questions openly and freely discuss their concerns.

Maintaining a Trusting Relationship with Patients

Establishing trust is one thing, but keeping it strong and allowing it to truly flourish is another.

Even after you successfully build rapport with patients and begin to see the signs of mutual trust and respect growing, don’t forget to find ways to keep the connection alive. Patient engagement will play a massive part in maintaining the bond you’ve worked so hard to spark.

Since patient engagement relies on factors like visibility, shared decision-making, and accessibility, it’s also interconnected with patient trust and confidence. In other words, when patients are engaged in care, they’re likely to continually trust their providers – in some cases, that trust may even grow as engagement levels do.

As you discover how to build trust with patients in a way that suits your workflows, it’s also wise to take a step back to identify areas where you can make yourself more available.

Technology that allows you to communicate directly in real-time is key for building trust with patients. So is having solutions that help you automate and streamline administrative tasks, recordkeeping, and other everyday duties that can limit the time you can spend delivering quality care.

Nurture Patient Trust with Linear Health

Linear Health is a patient engagement platform built with the needs of behavioral healthcare providers in mind.

It’s time to introduce a new generation of healthcare tools that allow professionals to offer tailored, timely, and life-changing care.

From patient communication to simplifying intake and reviewing patient records, Linear Health is optimized to fit seamlessly into your day.

Ready to learn more? Contact us today to request a demo or get started.