It’s Time To Get The Real Problems Out Of The Way
It is a fact that chronic shortages of qualified providers are one of the biggest problems in the healthcare industry. The problem affects providers across fields, but is felt most critically in mental healthcare. A significant number of Americans with mental health problems are going untreated, either because they cannot afford treatment or because there is no treatment available. Healthcare provider shortage areas are a very real problem that is not going to get better any time soon. The ONLY viable way to deal with this problem is to make it possible to do more with less.
That’s where telehealth comes in. Providers operating and providing care remotely can achieve the goal of doing more with less in one of two ways. First, they can reach populations that were previously prohibitively difficult to reach. This could be because they were too remote for travel, but it might also be because the location itself was dangerous. (This includes prison populations, where physical danger is high but where the need for care remains great.)
Second, providers can lower costs and increase the amount of time they are available to treat patients by eliminating the logistics of travel. In other words, the amount of time a provider spends on travel reduces the amount of time that provider can treat those in need. Telehealth eliminates that wasted time and restores to the provider’s working day those valuable minutes, hours, and even days.
Aneri Pattani, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, spotlights this problem. “More than half of American adults and 80 percent of children with mental health needs to do not receive treatment,” Pattani reports. “Some don’t want to seek care and the cost of treatment is a barrier for others. But even those with resources who want care are running into a pervasive problem: There are not enough mental-health care workers in the United States.”
Pattani argues persuasively for changes in state laws that currently limit the ability of nurses to fill the gaps. “Psychiatric mental health (PMH) nurses include both registered nurses and advanced practice nurses. Nationally certified PMH registered nurses have been in the field at least two years and have completed 2,000 hours of mental-health clinical practice and 30 hours of continuing education. PMH advanced practice nurses have additional degrees and licenses in mental-health care. PMH advanced practice nurses are trained to diagnose mental illness, prescribe medication, and provide psychotherapy. But in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they’re required to have a supervising physician sign off on any prescriptions.”
Changing the laws, as Pattani suggests, could help alleviate the problem. But it isn’t enough. The only viable solution is, again, to do more with fewer resources. Our telecommunications technology is already excellent. What we need is widespread acceptance for this technology, coupled with the removal of bureaucratic and legal roadblocks to its use. THAT is what will help us bring care to all those in need around the world. That is the promise of telepsychiatry and telemental health, which are the future of mental healthcare.