Counseling Center-Based Tele-Mental Health for Students at a Rural University

Abstract

Students attending rural academic institutions often have no immediate access to psychiatrists to supplement on-site Counseling Center (CC) services. Because the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) could not cost-effectively provide on-site psychiatry services to Georgia Southern University (GSU) students, the two institutions explored telehealth services delivered by supervised Psychiatry residents using Web-based videoconferencing on MCGs virtual private network. GSU counselors completed client severity rating forms. CC clients in ongoing therapy who were judged to be in need of psychiatric services were referred to the Tele-clinic (TC). CC counselors referred the most challenged students to TC according to total distress score on intake, clinician intake assessment of client difficulty, and client need for medications. After seeing the clients in TC, MCG residents also completed GSU CC client severity rating forms. Post-intake and satisfaction surveys already in use at the GSU CC were completed both by CC clients not in TC and by CC clients jointly enrolled in TC. TC and CC populations were compared by gender, race, past mental health treatment, past psychiatric hospitalization, and past and current use of psychotropic drugs. Telepsychiatry conducted using low bandwidth videoconferencing successfully supplemented GSU CC mental healthcare, especially for clients with the most serious problems, and did so without travel from campus and within the milieu of daily student life. Cost-effective telepsychiatry services can successfully supplement management of students with mental health issues who attend rural, smaller, and/or resource-challenged academic institutions.

Task‐Sharing Approaches to Improve Mental Health Care in Rural and Other Low‐Resource Settings: A Systematic Review

“…Mental health specialists were also utilized in schools via telehealth. Telepsychiatry interventions hold promise in both rural K‐12 schools and rural universities . These interventions involved direct provision of care and consultation with the team assisting the student, which can include the teacher, parent, social worker, school nurse, and principal in the K‐12 setting or local psychologists at the rural university setting .…”

“…42,43 These interventions involved direct provision of care and consultation with the team assisting the student, 41,42 which can include the teacher, parent, social worker, school nurse, and principal in the K-12 setting 41 or local psychologists at the rural university setting. 43 Telepsychiatry at schools or other community settings may be particularly convenient for children with severe developmental disabilities. 36 Such services can offer considerable cost savings to state Medicaid programs.…”

Improving Proton Therapy Accessibility Through Seamless Electronic Integration of Remote Treatment Planning Sites

“…Our hybrid remote proton therapy treatment planning solution not only improves access to a scarce treatment modality 27,28 for both patient and provider, as a telemedicine solution, but also has the potential to bring the cumulative expertise of all oncology specialties (gynecological, medical, pediatric, surgical, and radiation) to extend collaboration and education among the cancercare community. [29][30][31][32] Although the cost of the hardware may present a budgetary challenge for smaller clinics, 33 the approach we propose will naturally scale upward as network capacities are expanding, giving users the ability to see and hear in high definition, while engaging in the real-time remote manipulation of complex treatment plans.…”

Institutionally based videoconferencing

“…The infrastructure in place has other advantages as well. Some universities have incorporated the ubiquity of mobile devices into their student mental health offerings (Khasanshina et al, 2008). This is a relatively new development but one that shows promise going forward.…”