Time Magazine - Telemental Health: Videoconferencing As Psychiatry Aid

Colleagues,

For your edification ... The most recent Time magazine documents the increasing mainstream appeal of telemental health services ...

ENJOY!

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Kanina Chavez lives an hour away from Children's Hospital in Seattle and used to have to take a whole day off from work whenever her daughter, Rachel, had an appointment with a psychiatrist. Rachel was a
teenager when she started treatment for bipolar disorder roughly six
years ago. Back then, she and her mother had never heard of
telepsychiatry. But now they're using real-time videoconferencing in
Olympia, Wash., to make it easier for Rachel to remain in the care of
experts in Seattle....

... During the videoconferencing sessions, her psychiatrist can monitor how Rachel is doing, and Kanina can sit beside her daughter and take notes on the recommended adjustments to her
daughter's medications. "I was a little apprehensive about my daughter
not being face to face with the doctor," says Chavez. "But the
conversation was just as good as if we were in person." ...

... Telepsychiatry is a growing trend in mental health ...

... one of the benefits of a videoconference: unlike a phone call, it allows doctors to observe a patient's facial expressions and body language...

...The rise in telepsychiatry has come largely out of need. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP),
between 7 million and 12 million youths suffer from mental, behavioral
or developmental disorders. And a new nationally representative survey,
funded in part by NIMH, indicates that 50% of the children in the U.S.
who have certain mental disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder
and depression are not being treated by a psychiatrist or other
mental-health professional...

..."There are not enough doctors to go around," says Dr. Martin Drell, head of child psychiatry for Louisiana State University's health-science
center in New Orleans and AACAP's president-elect...

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