By Anonymous
Approximately 495 Chicago-area veterans are using Veterans Health Administration outpatient clinics to receive mental health care through video technology, according to the Chicago Tribune. The “telemental health service” allows mental health specialists at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Maywood, Ill., to remotely consult with patients at six community-based outpatient clinics. Veterans are accessing the service for help with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts, without making a long car trip that could evoke memories of dangerous roads in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007, 24,000 veterans used telemental health services in the United States, and 2008 projections indicate that up to 40,000 veterans may seek this treatment.
“Many researchers have done studies on telemental health, and it stands up reliably to face-to-face service,” Adam Darkins, chief consultant for care coordination for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, told the Chicago Tribune. “There is a slight remoteness about it, but it’s all about relationships. If s really working out.”
Since 2005, the number of mental health staff at Hines has nearly doubled to 195 psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, addiction therapists and other staff. According to the Chicago Tribune, Bruce Roberts, M.D., chief of mental health at Hines, has asked for up to 114 more staff by 2010 and expects to receive that number. Hines will be adding an additional computer to each of its current outpatient sites, with the exception of one site that already has two. Not including infrastructure costs, one video terminal with a service contract costs approximately $5,000.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has increased its budget for mental health services and expects to spend $3 billion in 2008, according to The Great Lakes News, a newsletter for the VA Great Lakes Health Care System, of which Hines is a member. The VA has hired more than 3,600 mental health employees since 2005, bringing the current total to more than 10,000.
Roberts said that the growing need for mental health care is not due solely to recently returning veterans. Many older veterans are experiencing mental health episodes triggered by reminders of war on television and in newspapers, according to the Chicago Tribune.
For additional information, visit www.hines.med.va.gov.
Copyright Health Forum Inc. Summer 2008
(c) 2008 Hospitals & Health Networks. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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