Telepsychiatry in simple is a form of telemedicine which lets patients to easily have access to professional psychiatric service with the help of telecommunications technology which includes voice and video conferencing. It is generally used to provide psychiatric help to underserved and rural areas. With the advancement in technology there are also several benefits included in the telepsychiatry system which keep developing with their services. Moreover the process of telepsychiatry or medical service in rural areas is also gaining high popularity among the traditional psychiatrists.
The technologies which can make this remote psychiatric care possible could include communication systems such as the internet, telephones and even email services. However in generally two way live video conferencing is also standard and preferred method for communication in telepsychiatry. The video conferencing methods generally allows the psychiatrists to see and hear both the nonverbal and verbal cues which are studied during some common forms of psychiatric diagnosis. The type of care offered through telepsychiatry could actually include a great range. Diagnosis, assessment and treatment consultation might be possible through video conferencing mode of communication. The conferencing with other health care experts involved in the care of the patient might also occur. Involuntary, legal and forensic commitment consultants can also get help from remote psychiatry with the help of proper telepsychiatry systems.
Although telepsychiatry comes with a number of potential applications for the patients, physicians and psychiatrists and even some researchers recommend that there should be 3 main uses for the system. The first is that telepsychiatry might be useful for treating patients who reside in underserved and rural areas or the patients who are homebound. Therefore the patients who cannot manually reach the psychiatrist could still receive an entire range of care options with the help of telepsychiatry. The other great thing about telepsychiatry is that it might be useful during emergency health care needs. When there is quick assessment needed or the patient is in a crisis situation who requires immediate care and attention then telepsychiatry could easily communicate to them in a timely manner and give them advice accordingly. For instance, when the patient needs to be immediately admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care then the hospital could save time by easily staging their assessment through video conferencing or telepsychiatry.
The other great use of telepsychiatry is known as inpatient liaison. It basically means that the patient in the hospital could easily communicate with their psychiatrist or family and even through physician with the help of video conferencing. This means that if the patient is from a rural area who is admitted to the hospital located in a metropolitan area then either the attending psychiatrist or the patient could easily communicate with their family members of to their senior psychiatrist when they need with the help of a face to face video conference.
Today, most of the cities feel that the lack of private interaction limits often limits the effectiveness for the telepsychiatry treatments. Some other observers do suggest at a patient might feel more comfortable or less intimidated when using a videoconference setting with the psychiatrist. The ongoing studies still determine that either of these are the factors in the system. Moreover the polling data also suggests that a majority of the patients could be satisfied with the help of professional care received through telepsychiatry and particularly video conferencing services.
However in response tot eh recent developments and interests shown in the field of telepsychiatry literature over this subject has increased greatly over the past years. Telepsychiatry has also been the most successful among all the other kinds of telemedicine applications due to its need for only video conferencing facilities conducted between the psychiatrist and the patient and specially its follow ups. Moreover there are also sub specialists such as forensic telepsychiatry where in the patient is normally a patient gaining access to the psychiatrist who in the form of support institution offers home based telepsychiatry whereby the patient is located in their own office or home. This means that the patient can access the desired psychiatrist through high speed internet connection with the help of a webcam. The other common application si for the patients in underserved and rural areas and there are several telepsychiatry programs which are based in the United States and cater the telepsychiatry needs of most of the rural areas. However in the United the medicare and other kinds of state medicaids are some forms of private health insurance providers which pay equally for the telepsychiatry as for face to face psychiatric health care management visits.
However the recent innovation is actually the development of subspecialty of the most needed emergency psychiatry offered through telemedicine. The research is presently on going n order to develop some unique guidelines needed to offer consultation in case of emergency psychiatric needs such as the evaluation of homidical, suicidal, depressed, psychotic and manic patients.