A Digital Web of Behavioral Health Services for Rural Communities

Claudia S.P. Fernandez

A chapter in From Clinical Practice to Public Health Applications - The Successful, Sustainable and Scalable Outcomes of the Clinical Scholars Program from IntechOpen

Abstract: America's rural communities tend to be hit hardest with deaths by suicide, occurring at more than twice the rate of those living in urban communities. After 3 years of social restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the behavioral health crisis in rural America intensified. Although one might find a psychiatric specialist on almost every street corner in New York City, those living outside of large metropolitan cities can find themselves traveling hundreds of miles for behavioral health care. With funding and equity-centered leadership training from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Clinical Scholars program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), our multidisciplinary team of clinicians set out to reduce rural health disparities and improve the quality of behavioral health care using digital technology. We developed a Digital Web of behavioral health services using telepsychiatry, telepsychotherapy, and telementoring. The team's greatest success was the installation of these technology-enabled services into a rural New York State community prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed for a rapid response, uninterrupted services, and reduced wait times. The Digital Web has been scaled into community hospitals, primary care clinics, and skilled nursing facilities across New York State. It has also been replicated to support rural residents with substance use disorders in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. This chapter describes the successes of the Digital Web in a rural New York State community, how the program was scaled across settings, and the funding mechanisms pursued to ensure sustainability.

Keywords: rural behavioral health; telepsychiatry; telepsychotherapy; telementoring; disparities; Clinical Scholars (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:330922

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.115594

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