Gargi Rakhade is a senior in the Honors Psychology program at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also pursuing a minor in Health Communications. Her interests center on developing more individualized and culturally informed mental health interventions, with the goal of improving care for the communities that need it most.
This summer, Gargi worked under the supervision of Dr. Evan Eschliman on research examining how patients and providers experience delivering and receiving mental health and substance use care virtually, through modalities such as telehealth and online therapy. As a contributor to this scoping review and qualitative meta-synthesis, she conducted abstract screening and will continue through full-text review, data analysis, and manuscript preparation, synthesizing findings across existing studies to identify what
makes virtual care effective and accessible. Through this work, she gained hands-on experience with the Covidence review management software and with qualitative evidence synthesis techniques. Beyond this project, Gargi conducted a qualitative meta-synthesis investigating the barriers and facilitators to implementing harm reduction services for individuals who use drugs and experience housing instability, work she is preparing to submit as a conference abstract.
Gargi looks forward to continuing the virtual care meta-synthesis with Dr. Eschliman and to beginning a scoping review on underage gambling and existing interventions with Dr. Ohemaa Poku. She is deeply grateful for the knowledge she has gained this summer, which she will carry forward to adopt a more culturally informed lens as she moves into her future career.