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Key considerations for recruiting mental health professionals
How to determine the right provider type for your behavioral health program
Resources to assist with recruiting mental health professionals
Next steps for staffing your behavioral health program
Investing in virtual behavioral health connects your patients with specialists who can provide effective care while increasing access and allowing on-site providers to practice at the top of their licenses.
Keep reading to learn more about the different provider types available in a remote setting and how to recruit psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. You’ll also learn how to find the best fit for your population, organization, and care team.
Key considerations for recruiting mental health professionals
Before you get started with behavioral health staffing, there are a few questions to consider. First, do you have the patient volume to support a telehealth provider? Next, how will your population respond to telehealth?
If the volume of patients is there, and you think your population would respond well, you’ll want to consider what qualities to look for in your ideal telehealth provider.
It’s important to note that whatever qualities you look for in an on-site provider, you’ll also want in a remote provider. The only difference between in-person and remote is the variation in workflows – like the way your provider will integrate into your electronic medical records (EMR) and care team.
Here are a few qualities we think make an exceptional telehealth provider:
- Self-starter
- Flexible
- Tech-savvy
- Self-sufficient
- Independent
- Open communicator
An essential component in finding the right clinician type for your population is partnering with an organization that facilitates provider-matching services. As part of the provider matching process, you’ll get to do a meet and greet with your potential provider to ensure they’re a good match for your organization.
This process helps you get a good feel for how the provider presents over the computer, if they project well, and how they handle technology. All these things directly relate to how they might present to a patient.
How to determine the right provider type for your behavioral health program
Here at Iris Telehealth, we work with several provider types, including psychiatrists, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs), and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs). These providers help deliver telepsychiatry and teletherapy services to healthcare organizations all over the country.
But, how do you know which provider is best for your patients? Let’s take a look at some of the unique benefits and differentiators between these particular provider types:
- Psychiatrists: There’s a high demand for psychaitrists because of their great depth of experience and their ability to serve as an excellent resource for mentoring care teams. Additionally, because of their knowledge and experience, patients have great confidence in MDs. On the organizational side, MDs often require more extensive support staff to help with appointment scheduling and helping patients get into their calls.
- PMHNPs: PMHNPs are often self-sufficient and flexible. Once a PMHNP is certified, they can practice across the patient lifespan, allowing them to treat children, adolescents, adults and geriatric populations. PMHNPs also require less support staff to facilitate daily scheduling and getting patients into their calls. They carry a great depth of experience, are equipped with a wide range of specialties, and are fantastic at problem-solving and filling in where needed.
- LCSWs: LCSWs are self-starters who think outside the box, and are excellent at helping the remote work process run smoothly. They’re excellent resources for helping out with other projects at the clinic. Additionally, they work with case managers and the rest of the care team to talk big picture for patients and the rest of the clinic. Some LCSWs are also trained in specialty techniques like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), solution-focused therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT),crisis intervention model, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Resources to assist with recruiting mental health professionals
Every provider offers something unique to patient care, and are a great resource to any team. To get a deeper understanding of what each of these providers can bring to the table, be sure to check out the following resources:
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- For more information on LCSWs and teletherapy: How Teletherapy Programs Optimize Behavioral Health Care
- Learn more what PMHNPs can offer: How PMHNPs Can Benefit Your Healthcare Organization
- Get the details on MDs and the benefits of telepsychiatry: The Benefits of Telepsychiatry During Provider Shortages
Next steps for staffing your behavioral health program
Find the right provider type for your organization by working with an experienced telehealth provider. At Iris, our hiring process is in-depth, and we put an extensive amount of time into interviewing and recruiting. If someone makes it through our many levels of interviews, you can trust they’re a quality candidate.
Want to learn what you can do to get started? Contact us today to jumpstart your provider search and find an experienced, quality clinician your patients and care team will love!
