St. Joseph’s Villa and InSight Telepsychiatry Bring Psychiatric Care to Children in Crisis Stabilization Unit
RICHMOND, Va. (PRWEB) April 21, 2016 -- St. Joseph’s Villa is collaborating with InSight Telepsychiatry to bring telepsychiatry to children receiving mental health services at their facility. St. Joseph’s Villa (SJV) provides children and their families with a variety of social services. One of SJV’s many innovative and effective programs is their Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), where children experiencing mental health crises can go to receive treatment in an environment that feels like home — all with the goal of preventing costly, unnecessary hospitalization. Since opening in 2012, the CSU has served nearly 500 children and has successfully diverted nearly 90 percent of them from hospitalization. InSight has helped the CSU work toward this goal for nearly two years.
Located in a repurposed cottage with spacious bedrooms and recreation areas, SJV’s CSU’s six-bed facility acts as a hybrid between a residential home and a hospital. This hybrid model allows SJV to offer clinical services, including telepsychiatry, while giving children in crisis a less restrictive environment than that of traditional residential treatment centers.
A first-of-its-kind facility in central Virginia, the CSU was a runner up in the Innovative Practices Award presented by the Council on Accreditation to spotlight organizations that bring lasting change to the lives of vulnerable individuals through unique, forward-thinking initiatives.
Telepsychiatry allows children in the CSU to see psychiatry providers through videoconferencing. With the option to utilize remote providers, telepsychiatry and other telemedicine services represent unprecedented access to specialists who are typically difficult to staff in rural and underserved areas. When the CSU opened in partnership with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) Region IV, SJV found that it was challenging to locate a qualified local child psychiatrist. In terms of mental health providers, several of the counties SJV’s CSU serves are Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.[1] Ultimately, SJV turned to telepsychiatry as the solution for bringing psychiatric care to their facility.
Telepsychiatry isn’t just a means of bringing access to care. The telepsychiatry medium is able to help these children express themselves better, says Craig Hedley, SJV’s Director of Community Partnerships. “Kids are used to Skyping, but they can be intimidated by adults. Children can relate to them better through a TV screen, which provides them a layer of safety and protection,” he says.
The CSU collaborates with an InSight telepsychiatrist for about 15 hours a week of regularly scheduled services. The telepsychiatrist, Dr. Ashika Kapoor, helps onsite providers assess children’s symptoms and manage their medications.
“There are unique challenges to working at a crisis stabilization unit, but I really enjoy being a part of a team approach,” Dr. Kapoor says. “The staff at St. Joseph's Villa are a wonderful group of individuals who do amazing work together as a team.”
According to Hedley, Dr. Kapoor is a flexible asset to this team-oriented approach and goes out of her way to help the team help the children for which they care.
“Dr. Kapoor is extremely invested in our program,” Hedley says. “Her responsiveness is incredible.”
The relationship between the InSight telepsychiatry provider and onsite staff is vital to the success of SJV’s CSU program.
“InSight believes in the importance of partnering with innovative, like-minded organizations and working hard to find the right fit between our psychiatrists and our partners,” says Geoffrey Boyce, Executive Director of InSight. “Integrating Dr. Kapoor onto the St. Joseph’s Villa CSU team has been a wonderful success.”
InSight Telepsychiatry is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider with a mission to increase access to appropriate behavioral health care. Telepsychiatry has been proven an effective and cost-conscious way to bring psychiatric care to children.[2] Forty percent of InSight’s telepsychiatry providers are child and adolescent psychiatrists.
“The partnership between InSight and St. Joseph's Villa shows how we can combine modern technology and personal touch to offer a meaningful and potentially life changing service to patients and families in their time of need,” says Dr. Kapoor. “Together we are able to help children and families through a difficult time in their lives and provide them with opportunities to succeed.”
1. http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/tools/analyzers/HpsaFind.aspx
2. Myers, K. M., Valentine, J. M., & Melzer, S. M. (2008). Child and Adolescent Telepsychiatry: Utilization and Satisfaction. Telemedicine and EHealth, 14(2), 131-137. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2007.0035
Olivia Boyce, InSight Telepsychiatry, http://www.insighttelepsychiatry.com/, +1 770.713.4161, [email protected]
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