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Telepsychiatry for Community Mental Health Clinics The severe shortage of qualified psychiatrists throughout the nation has left some geographic areas with more than a 50% deficit of psychiatric services, especially within specialty areas such as child & adolescent psychiatry. As a result many community mental health centers historically have long waiting lists, backlogs of consumers, and considerable difficulty in maintaining continuity of care for consumers. InSight’s telepsychiatry services address these needs by providing consistent access to quality care within designated blocks of time for evaluation, medication management, treatment planning, supervision or medical leadership, and even crisis intervention.Depending on the needs of the particular clinic or system, InSight typically offers outpatient telepsychiatry services in scheduled blocks of time on a regular basis from the same clinician. Under this model, the InSight telepsychiatrist becomes a regular and active member of the clinic’s treatment team while maintaining a long-term case load of patients. With InSight Telepsychiatry regardless of geography, mental health centers can gain access to the appropriate level of professional with the experience and credentials required to serve the local population of consumers. No longer having to struggle to recruit, retain, or reimburse the travel or relocation expenses of specialty psychiatrists, with InSight community mental health center can now access as much psychiatry as they need. InSight offers child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry, substance abuse specific psychiatry to community mental health centers through its team of employed telepsychiatrists and prescribing psychiatric nurse practitioners. Typical Equipment Setup: Most outpatient mental health centers will benefit from a dedicated videoconferencing unit that is hardwired into a designated telemedicine office or small conference room. These systems are often more affordable than the mobile systems used by hospitals and will typically include a camera mounted atop a mid-sized monitor that may be remotely controlled by the telepsychiatrist. While a staff member will need to activate the equipment and facilitate an introduction between the consumer and the remote clinician, it is normally not necessary for that staff member to remain in the room during an encounter. |
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