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'Telehealth' expands mental health provider's reach

Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) - 7/11/2015

July 10--There just aren't enough psychiatrists and advanced nurse practitioners to serve all the people who need one -- especially in rural areas.

But Helen Ross McNabb Center hopes some new technology will broaden the reach of the ones already here.

McNabb Center used a series of grants from Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee to research and purchase high-quality "telehealth" equipment, which lets the providers who write prescriptions do medication management in adjacent counties even when they're not physically there.

So, for example, nurse practitioner Katy Nottingham can see patients at McNabb Center's Sevier County clinic from her office near downtown Knoxville.

"On Thursdays, I can see more patients because I'm not commuting back and forth," Nottingham said.

Nottingham said she was skeptical at first; would patients open up to her "online" as well as they do in person?

But she said it's worked especially well for adolescents and young adults, who find technology like Skype and FaceTime "second nature."

"It's almost less intimidating for them," Nottingham said.

McNabb Center used a "phase 1" grant from Trinity last fall to research the type of system that would best fit its needs, then used the $150,000 "phase 2" grant this year to purchase the equipment, with a goal of using it to add 750 more patient appointments than last year. So far, it's added 350, said Mona Blanton-Kitts, vice president of Children, Youth and Family Services.

"The reason we looked at telehealth is really about access to rural areas," Blanton-Kitts said. "We were opening clinics in rural areas, and we just didn't have the prescriber coverage."

Right now, it's used with Anderson, Blount and Sevier counties, she said, but McNabb Center has had enough success that it plans next fiscal year to expand it to all the rural counties it serves.

The telehealth system is used only for medication management appointments right now, Nottingham said; case management and counseling are still done face-to-face. Clients can opt out of using the telemedicine system, she said, but so far none has.

And there are some clients for whom "we would never even introduce the concept of telehealth," Blanton-Kitts said, such as those who have delusions centering around media or technology.

Overall, though, she said the system has been popular with both clients and providers, who like the idea of a shorter commute.

"It's two hours of being able to see clients rather than being on the road," she said. "It's increased our ability to be a lot more efficient."

McNabb Center uses telehealth for Mobile Crisis Unit consults and also provided services via telehealth to a Memphis counseling company, because that area has a shortage of practitioners, she said. But this is the nonprofit's first widespread use of the technology.

Trinity Health Foundation also provided grants this round to East Tennessee Children's Hospital, Knoxville Leadership Foundation and two local churches for projects. Its 2015 Phase 1 grantees include 26 area organizations who will get more than $240,000, total, to plan community health-related projects. They can then apply for Phase 2 grants to help implement those projects.

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(c)2015 the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.)

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