Finding high quality psychiatrists and behavioral healthcare providers can be a challenge. Shiawassee Health & Wellness successfully navigated that challenge and hired a new, full-time psychiatrist, but with a twist: he lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
New telepsychiatry services give residents better access to mental health care
Shiawassee County is federally designated as a health professional shortage area (HPSA), where primary and dental care providers — let alone mental health care providers — can be difficult to access. SHW (formerly known as Shiawassee County Community Mental Health Authority) is the county’s designated Community Mental Health Services Program, with the responsibility for serving the specialty behavioral healthcare needs of county residents. The patient population includes adults and children with developmental disabilities, adults with serious mental illness, and children with serious emotional disturbances.
In order to address the needs of their patient population, the nonprofit health organization introduced telepsychiatry by partnering with Iris Telehealth. Telepsychiatry services from companies like Iris enable medical facilities like SHW to hire high quality psychiatric providers who might not be willing to move to areas where facilities are located while reducing the transportation barrier many patients face. SHW and Iris share a vision of expanding telehealth to smaller communities to provide underserved communities with access to the best behavioral healthcare specialists.
To learn more about the partnership between Iris Telehealth and SHW, read the full article here.
