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Health systems are responding to fragmented behavioral healthcare delivery in different ways: expanding telepsychiatry in rural states, building pediatric health hubs that integrate mental and physical health on one campus, launching behavioral health urgent cares, and investing in navigators and data infrastructure to keep patients connected after discharge.
In West Virginia, the access challenge is especially stark.
Keri Law, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and vice chair of clinical services at WVU Medicine in Morgantown, W.Va., told Becker’s that 50 of 55 counties are federally designated mental health professional shortage areas. As a result, some families must travel two to four hours for specialty behavioral healthcare — if it is available at all.
Over the last three years, virtual care has become a critical strategy for improving access.
“In terms of just our volumes, the number of total patient visits that we’re seeing virtually in our clinic, within the department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry, are still lingering a little over 50%,” she said. “And that’s with having about 100,000 patients per year, and with kids they’re a little bit less, but still at around a third of our children are seen virtually.”