St. Joseph’s Villa Receives Telehealth Innovation Award
RICHMOND, VA (PRWEB) April 10, 2017 -- St. Joseph’s Villa (SJV) of Richmond, VA received the prestigious Telehealth Innovation Award from the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC). The award recipients were announced on April 3, 2017 during the 2017 MATRC Telehealth Summit. The award is given to organizations that demonstrate an innovative application of telehealth and contribute to improved health outcomes and/or quality of life in the Mid-Atlantic region.
SJV partners with InSight to bring telepsychiatry to children receiving mental health services at their facility. One of SJV’s many innovative and effective programs is their Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), where children experiencing mental health crises can 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 with the help of telepsychiatrist Dr. Ashika Kapoor.
As one of the first crisis stabilization units for children and adolescents in Virginia, and one of the first crisis stabilization units in the country to use telepsychiatry, St. Joseph’s Villa exemplifies how combining modern technology and a personal touch can offer a meaningful and potentially life-changing service to patients and families in their time of need. The Villa is able to help children and families through a difficult time in their lives and provide them with opportunities to succeed because they have a telepsychiatry provider.
“St. Joseph’s Villa is committed to providing high quality behavioral health services to children and their families in innovative new settings. Our partnership with InSight has allowed us to expand our provider capacity,” said Kathleen Burke Barrett, CEO of St. Joseph’s Villa. “We’re delighted that our efforts to provide care beyond the confines of an office were recognized by MATRC.”
Telepsychiatry allows children in the CSU to see psychiatry providers through videoconferencing. It has been proven an effective and cost-conscious way to bring psychiatric care to children and many other populations. 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. Ultimately, SJV turned to telepsychiatry as the solution for bringing psychiatric care to their facility.
“InSight prides itself on developing partnerships with innovative, like-minded organizations and works hard to find the right fit between our telepsychiatry providers and our partners,” says Geoffrey Boyce, Executive Director of InSight. “Congratulations to St. Joseph’s Villa on this accomplishment and we look forward to sustaining a productive partnership.”
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About InSight Telepsychiatry
InSight is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider organization with a mission to increase access to quality behavioral health care through telehealth. InSight’s behavioral health providers bring care into any setting on an on-demand or scheduled basis. InSight has 18+ years of telepsychiatry experience and is an industry thought-leader. Forty percent of InSight’s telepsychiatry providers are child and adolescent psychiatrists. More information can be found at http://www.InSightTelepsychiatry.com.
About St. Joseph’s Villa
Established in 1834, St. Joseph’s Villa is the longest serving nonprofit for children in the country. The Villa impacts 3,000 children and families each year facing homelessness, autism and developmental disabilities, mental illness, and other challenges. Villa programs help them believe in themselves while providing them with the tools they need for long-term independence, stability, and success. For more information, visit http://www.NeverStopBelieving.org.
[1] 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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