Patient and Clinician Perspectives on Two Telemedicine Approaches for Treating Patients with Mental Health Disorders in Underserved Areas

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Participant Summary Table

	Total	Arkansas	Michigan	Washington
Patients	49	11	18	20
Telepsychiatry collaborative care	29	8	9	12
Telepsychiatry/Telepsychology enhanced referral	20	3	9	8
PTSD	28	6	11	11
Bipolar	21	5	7	9
Engagement status
Engaged	36	11	12	13
Not engaged	13	0	6	7
Primary care clinicians	21	5	6	10
Degree: MD/DO	13	4	3	6
Degree: NP/PA	8	1	3	4
Champion status
Champion	5	3	0	2
Nonchampion	16	2	6	8
Number of participating patients: 9 to 20	12	2	5	5
Number of participating patients: >20	9	3	1	5

Table 2.

Study Findings by Telemedicine Approach

	Telepsychiatry Collaborative Care	Telepsychiatry/Telepsychology Enhanced Referral
Access to mental health care
Provided access to specialty mental health care	X	X
Facilitated patient comfort by providing care in familiar primary care setting	X	X
Care quality and patient satisfaction
Patients reported high-quality treatment	X	X
Patients experienced overall satisfaction and improvements	X	X
Alignment with patient readiness and suitability
Better for patients with social anxiety, difficulty trusting and opening up to new people	X	–
Better for patients that needed local support and/or help addressing social needs	X	–
Better for patients ready for and in need of specific treatment modalities like CBT or CPT	–	X
Better for the most complex patients, patients whose needs were not met in primary care	–	X
Clinician involvement and responsibility
Required greater clinician involvement in care	X	–
Reduced clinician workload and responsibility	–	X
Facilitated patient care continuity	X	–
Easier for clinicians to maintain awareness about patient care and needs	X	–
Clinician skill development
Facilitated clinician skill development (eg, accurate mental health diagnoses and medication management)	X	–