Rural Telehealth Case Study, You Lead the Solutions

Rural Telehealth Case Study, You Lead the Solutions. –
Proposal

Attached Files:
· PDF-TelehealthClinicCaseStudies.pdf PDF-TelehealthClinicCaseStudies.pdf – Alternative Formats (765.791 KB)

Mental health illnesses are becoming increasingly common across
the US and in 2014 approximately 18% of all US adults were diagnosed with some
form of psychiatric or behavioral disorder (Heravaian and Chang,
2018). In 2019, the National Alliance on Mental Health recorded an
increase in US adults experiencing mental illness to 20.6% (NAMI,
2021). Additionally, more than 112 million Americans live in areas of the
country where mental health care is in short supply and shortages in rural
mental health providers is especially severe (McGinty, 2021). In
fact, rural individuals face unique challenges when attempting to receive
effective treatment for mental health conditions including, lack
of desire to receive care, lack of privacy, shortage of mental health
workforce professionals, lack of culturally competent care,
affordable care and transportation to care (RHIH, 2021). At the
National Institute of Mental Health Office for Research on Disparities and
Global Health (2018) Dennis Mahatt, the Vice President for
Behavioral Health at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
stated:

The cold hard facts about mental health in rural America is that
more than 60% of rural Americans live in mental health professional
shortage areas, that more than 90% of all psychologists and psychiatrists and 80% of Master of Social Work,
work exclusively in metropolitan areas. More than 65% of rural Americans
get their mental health care from primary healthcare provider and a mental health crises responder
for most rural Americans is a law enforcement officer.

With the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), safety precautions required
physical distancing measures of stay-at-home and social
distancing. While these precautions protected individuals from
COVID, these precautions also created a new challenge for rural individuals in
receiving mental health care. In response, healthcare providers began
making changes in service delivery for mental and behavioral health
treatments. “Changes have surrounded relaxing privacy requirements required by
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules and
increasing use of telehealth to deliver behavioral health treatment and
services,” (CRS, 2020). But will these changes be enough considering
the post pandemic mental health illnesses are expected to increase (Kathirvel,
2020).

One potential answer to reduce disparities in access to mental
health counseling in rural areas is telehealth (The relationship between
access to mental health counseling and interest in rural telehealth, 2021).
The following study will examine the potential challenges and benefits of
offering mental health support in rural areas through telehealth.

Problem: Telehealth
is being explored as potential tool for bridging gaps between healthcare
providers and patients, yet, HC managers/leaders perceptions of
telehealth effectiveness is unknown.

Aim: The
focus of the assignment is to gain insight into the effectiveness of telehealth
in supporting rural healthcare.
Review the article, Telehealth in
Community Clinics Three Case Studies in Implementation.
https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-TelehealthClinicCaseStudies.pdf
Select one of the three presented models:

Open Door Community Health Centers
La Clinica de La Raza
Southside Coalition of Community
Health Centers

Identify a rural area in need of
medical care for which you are familiar.
Write a proposal to apply the
identified model to your identified rural location.
The proposal can be 6-10 pages.
The proposal should be formatted via
APA.
The proposal should include:

Unique Title.
Table of contents.
Executive summary.
The problem statement.
The proposed solution.
Qualifications.
The timeline.
Expected expenses.
How project success will be measured.
Expected challenges.

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