Telepsychiatry: Revolutionize the access to mental healthcare

Telepsychiatry is the practice of delivering mental health care remotely in real-time using secure video conferencing technology to allow for the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment. There are no surprises in saying that we’re in the middle of a mental health care crisis all over the globe, with the need of services enhancing traditional practice methods. Telepsychiatry software avails quality psychiatry care to nearly everyone by leveraging recent advancements in communication technology.

Through telepsychiatry platforms interactions can become way to easy not only amongst patient-psychiatrists, but also between psychiatrists and primary care physicians or other healthcare providers. Whenever there is a need to consult with other healthcare provider on any case or to get a second opinion, a psychiatrist might use a telepsychiatry software solution to get best advices. Telepsychiatry solution is a savior for the psychiatrist based in rural or medically deprived area, helping them to come out of box and treat their patients. Telepsychiatry promotes time saving and encourages collaboration too.

Reduce the barrier of stigma with telepsychiatry

Stigma – a key factor that keeps many from seeking treatment. People suffer extreme anxiety at the thought of visiting any type of doctor office. “White coat syndrome” is a very real phobia that can prevent those with mental illness or health issues from going through with a scheduled appointment. Patients are able to experience more privacy, and care is more conveniently accessed in a private setting of the patient’s choice. By empowering patient with greater choice in location and time, telepsychiatry models help tear down communication barriers resulting into decrease in stigma.

Based on different contexts of service delivery, Telepsychiatry includes a variety of sub-specialties:

In-house telepsychiatry

Providing quality psychiatry care is challenging in areas with limited psychiatrist coverage and for those who cannot manage to travel the distance because of stigma or old age. This hybrid telepsychiatry is a reasonable option for homebound elderly patients living in urban areas and less expensive than nursing home admission. It just requires a webcam and high-speed internet service to step-up. However, it is very important to avoid the risk of violating the patient-provider relationship and crucial patient data. We at Vinfotech provide in-house Telepsychiatry solutions with best served HIPAA compliant platform minimizing the risk of data breaching.

Forensic telepsychiatry

Providing remote mental health services to people in prisons or correctional facilities is termed as forensic telepsychiatry. It includes regular visits, evaluations for parole, psychiatric assessments, and more for prison inmates using a telepsychiatry software solution. Use of this technology and services has gained attention among legal and clinical practitioners. Forensic telepsychiatry has been found to be cost effective, privacy and confidentiality, improve access to scarce specialist skills and reduce transport of prisoners as prisoners don’t need to be escorted off-site for psychiatric appointments.

On-demand telepsychiatry

On-demand telepsychiatry is also an effective means of reducing the need for psychiatric boarding. This method of telepsychiatry comes into action when a mentally ill resident is detained from a proper psychiatric treatment, often in a hospital. This avails the psychiatric consumers with faster access to care and lesser waiting time.
As per a study in 2008, for the provision of telepsychiatric consultation guidelines are being developed for emergency psychiatric cases, such as depressed, manic, homicidal, suicidal and acutely anxious patients.

Scheduled Telepsychiatry

Schedule psychiatry is the solution for the understaffed mental health facilities in rural areas. They might use schedule telepsychiatry to assign some patients to a remote provider. The ultimate goal of routine/scheduled telepsychiatry is to increase the volume of mental health facilities by outsourcing some mental health routine care to psychiatrists at other locations. Remote providers can be consulted for treatment team meetings, supervision, medication management, or to offer traditional psychiatric consultation and assessment.

Telepsychiatry is expanding hospital catchment area and increasing admission to rural clinics, federally qualified health center, skilled nursing facility, primary care physician, military bases, critical access hospitals, correctional facilities.

HIPAA compliant solutions

Psychiatrists need to look for the telepsychiatry solutions that can provide the highest security standards providing the complete privacy of their patient healthcare information.

Today’s mental health landscape is characterized by an increased requirement for services coupled with a dwindling supply of psychiatrists. According to a research, 42.5 million Americans struggle with mental health conditions including stress, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship problems, mood disorders and other psychological concerns. To put this need into perspective, Telepsychiatry is evolving to be the most essential practice taken into consideration.

Vinfotech is a HIPAA-compliant, telepsychiatry solution provider that connects providers with their patients for secure, convenient, remote care. We provide you with beautiful UI having zero learning curve software solutions. Since we are dedicated in understanding your organization’s need and operational goals of providing best telepsychiatry treatment. Contact us to know more.