Ensuring Successful Telepsychiatry Program Implementation: Critical Components and Considerations

Tele-Mental Health Utilization Among People with Mental Illness to Access Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The utilization of telecommunication platforms, such as videoconferencing, to deliver mental health services remotely defines tele-mental health (Mahmoud et al 2020 ). It was not a surprise, then, that mental health services via tele-mental health became a routine component during the COVID19 pandemic.…”

“…In recent years, there has been a significant expansion of tele-mental health services. For instance, in the US in 2017 almost 30% of mental health facilities offered tele-mental health services (Mahmoud et al 2020 ).…”

“…Tele-mental health is a well-known practice and has been around for more than half a century (Mahmoud et al 2020 ; Hilty et al 2013 ). In 2009, the American Telemedicine Association established guidelines for tele-mental health.…”

Planning and Implementing Telepsychiatry in a Community Mental Health Setting: A Case Study Report

“…It also discusses different approaches to mitigating challenges to implementations related to technology, patient and staff resistance, and clinician shortage. To our knowledge, this is one of few case studies reporting such an initiative and thus presents a timely contribution to the literature (Hossam Mahmoud et al 2020a , b ; Peter Yellowlees et al 2020 ). The value of telepsychiatry became exponentially more evident following the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is expected that more healthcare institutions will start adopting this modality to deliver mental health care moving forward (Naal et al 2020 ; Whaibeh et al 2020 ; Peter Yellowlees et al 2020 ).…”

“…The planning and implementation processes of this program have utilized many of the “core competencies” described in the literature as critical for telehealth implementation, including the utilization of implementation services that help in planning, training, education and implementation, as well as operations support, regulatory compliance, and teleclinician management (Adaji and Fortney 2017 ; Lokken et al 2019 ; H Mahmoud et al 2020a , b ; Naal et al 2020 ; Wang and Alexander 2014 ). While some of these services could have been implemented in-house, such as ensuring adequate support through a telehealth navigator and other clinical services, there was a significant value to partnering with a telepsychiatry organization that has experience with telepsychiatry implementation, for ongoing issue tracking, teleclinician training, teleclinician management, compliance, and legal support.…”