How to Provide Culturally Competent Care Through Telehealth

Culturally competent care effectively meets social and cultural needs by addressing issues like language barriers, low literacy rates, and lack of knowledge about racial and ethnic minority health. This approach to care can help providers and organizations improve health outcomes, increase the quality of care, and move closer to eliminating ethnic and racial health disparities.

Social determinants of health can create and exacerbate mental health conditions, hindering people’s ability to access the care they need. For example, one of the five categories of social determinants of health is access to quality care. Without cultural competency, quality care is hard to find for people who come from different backgrounds, especially when there are language or cultural barriers.

However, health care services that put patient values, beliefs, and behaviors first can help ensure your organization is delivering culturally competent care. Commitment to cultural competence begins by recognizing that healthcare is constantly evolving and patients deserve to have the care they need without fear of being misunderstood.

The importance of cultural competence

Currently, racial and ethnic minorities make up about a third of the U.S population. By 2055, they are expected to become the majority, according to Cigna. With an increasingly diverse population, the likelihood of people having limited English proficiency, less adherence to Western cultural norms, and more unique social and cultural needs might lead to larger healthcare disparities.

By practicing cultural competency and maintaining mutual respect and increased understanding between providers and patients, everyone benefits. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), incorporating culturally competent strategies can lead to better communication and experience, better information, and improved patient-provider matching.

Additionally, the Health Research & Educational Trust highlights three other benefits of cultural competence:

  • Business benefits: practicing cultural competence helps with the efficiency of care services, decreases barriers, increases overall the market share of an organization, and incorporates different perspectives.
  • Health benefits: implementing cultural competency can lead to collecting patient data and improving treatment, reducing medical errors, incorporating preventative care, and reducing health care disparities for various patient populations.
  • Social benefits: executing cultural competency also leads to cultivating mutual respect and understanding for both providers and patients, increasing overall trust, and promoting inclusion of all community members.

With the implementation of cultural competency, everyone involved can benefit greatly. While it is almost impossible to know everything about every culture, you can be one step closer to providing culturally competent care for your patients with the right approach.

How to provide culturally competent care through telehealth

It can be difficult for individuals living in rural areas to find a provider who can understand and engage with their culture. Issues like language barriers and lack of innate trust in receiving care from providers who are not part of their cultural group can pose an enormous challenge.

Telehealth gives access to patients looking for a provider who can better understand their culture. Regardless of where a patient lives, telehealth can connect them with a provider who can better relate to their experiences.

While cultural competency takes time and effort, with practice, your organization can provide care to your patients with their beliefs, culture, and values in mind.

Here are just a few ways providers can practice cultural competency through telehealth:

  1. Don’t make assumptions. When it comes to telehealth, not everyone knows how to use technology. So, being patient and adaptable can make a huge difference in offering competent care as a provider. Furthermore, mental health is stigmatized in many communities. Stigma often comes from a lack of understanding or fear, so it is important to be patient, not assume that everyone knows about mental illnesses, and be open to teaching.
  2. Have concise and thorough explanations. English is not everyone’s first language, and language accessibility is critical. By keeping answers simple and easy to understand, people can better understand their course of treatment. Long explanations can take away from adequately diagnosing or treating people. In some cases, providing professional interpreting services or hiring bilingual staff as medical interpreters can help to navigate complex conversations.
  3. Withhold judgments. Shared-decision making is standard in other cultures, like big decisions related to a family member’s health. Along with shared decision making, when a patient makes a choice about their health, try to respect it. When patients understand their options and course of action for their health and want to go another route that is aligned with their culture, respect is essential. In addition, many cultures may use alternative treatment instead of relying on Western medicine. By making an effort to understand a patient’s traditional health beliefs and practices, explaining their course of treatment can be more manageable.
  4. Accommodate and educate. Teach patients about techniques or technologies and find culturally accommodating alternatives when possible. For example, some people will not know how to use laptops or computers with ease. Teaching them and being patient can mitigate some discomfort. Always ask about their preference before accommodating.
  5. Be aware of cultural differences. Through telehealth, non-verbal communication can play a prominent role. Make sure that the use of gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions are appropriate and respectful within your patient’s culture. It’s okay to ask!

How organizations can accommodate

Providing culturally competent care for your patient population can become a reality by institutionalizing changes at your organization. Here are a few ways your organization can help your providers deliver culturally competent care and accommodate the needs of your patient populations:

  1. Be intentional about recruitment. Ideally, an organization’s staff should be at least as diverse and multicultural as your patient populations to help provide appropriate care. With a diverse team of providers, your practice will have a more comprehensive cultural knowledge base to pull from when it comes time to provide care.
  2. Collect REAL data. According to the AHA, organizations should collect race, ethnicity, and language preference (REAL) data. Collecting this data will help your organization identify and report disparities, increase diversity and minority workforce pipelines, and make cultural competency an institutional priority.
  3. Offer training and resources. Make sure you give your providers ample time and resources around culturally competent care. Remember to encourage your providers to take some time to develop skills and knowledge to effectively navigate an industry that works with people of many backgrounds.
  4. Assess and address. Your organization and providers will not become perfect at providing culturally competent care overnight. It’ll be vital to identify and address areas of underperformance on an ongoing basis through your organization’s REAL data and feedback from your patients and providers.

Resources for providers and looking towards the future

As a provider, learning about cultural competency can feel overwhelming, and knowing where to start might feel confusing. By taking steps to improve your cultural competency, you will be better equipped to serve the needs of a variety of patients from different backgrounds.
Here are a few resources and ways that can help you practice and advocate for cultural competence in the workplace:

  1. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Resources on Cultural Competence: SAMHSA has resources and online training for providing cultural competency for both organization leaders and providers.
  2. The Health Research and Educational Trust and the American Hospital Association (AHA): This guidebook has resources for healthcare organizations and leadership. It outlines multiple benefits of culturally competent care, next steps for hospitals and care systems, and how to provide effective staff education.
  3. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): The AHRQ has their Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit on improving linguistic competency when delivering health care. The toolkit gives information about how to learn from patients, from other staff, and other sources like websites and courses. It also gives guidance on how to track your progress among your providers.
  4. Think Cultural Health: This website has resources, CME, and information for providers about culturally and linguistically appropriate care services. The website is sponsored by The Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Where Iris Telehealth can help

At Iris Telehealth, we work with other healthcare organizations around the nation to bring high-quality, specialized psychiatry services to people who need them the most. Contact us today to see if our telepsychiatry services can help your providers and organization provide culturally competent care for your patients.

How Telepsychiatry Makes Mental Health Care Accessible for All

Mental health care is inaccessible to many, whether it’s due to transportation barriers, economic opportunity, or obstacles related to race or stigma – getting treatment isn’t always easy.

For healthcare organizations, barriers like these highlight the importance of providing high-quality and accessible care to communities across the country. But, what does genuinely accessible care look like? Truly accessible care meets people where they are, with the right care, at the right time – without concern for location, schedule, or socioeconomic class.

Telepsychiatry meets this demand head-on, creating a bridge between people and the care gaps they encounter when seeking mental health care. Read on to learn more about specific barriers people are facing, how telepsychiatry solves these challenges, and how healthcare organizations can benefit from embracing a truly accessible behavioral health approach.

Addressing language barriers with telepsychiatry

For many patients, deciding to seek mental health treatment is a big decision, and many factors might deter them from getting that help.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) cites several barriers to care for Hispanic and Latino populations in the U.S., including:

  • Language barriers
  • Lack of culturally tailored services
  • Lack of culturally competent mental professionals
  • Shortage of bilingual or linguistically trained mental health professionals

The APA also reports that only one in 20 Hispanics with a mental disorder receive mental health services from a specialist. For patients who speak another language, having a provider who understands their culture and language can help them feel less hesitant about seeking care. However, only 6% of mental health providers in the U.S. are Hispanic, and only 5.5% provide services in Spanish.

Thankfully, telepsychiatry can help bridge this gap. At Iris Telehealth, we draw from a large provider pool, and our patients can connect with providers outside of their geographic area who may speak their same language or have experience with their culture. This connection is highly beneficial to individuals who may not have a provider they can connect with locally.

However, if no providers are available, interpreters can also help patients communicate during their visit. Interpreters work for telepsychiatry the same way they would during an in-person visit. It just requires some organizational efforts on the clinical side and reassurance to the patient that the support is available. If the facility doesn’t have an in-person interpreter, they can join the virtual call. Whether a patient connects directly with a provider who speaks their language or works with an interpreter, telepsychiatry breaks down barriers to help them get the care they need and deserve.

Reaching people where they are with telepsychiatry

For people in rural areas, getting the mental health care they need can seem next to impossible. Rural Americans face several barriers, including the expense of taking time away from work, coordinating with their child’s school or daycare schedules, and the lack of mental health providers in their geographic region. And, even if there are providers close by, there’s typically an extensive waiting list to get care.

Along with these barriers, transportation is a real issue for people in these communities. In an American Hospital Association (AHA) report, 3.6 million people cannot access medical care due to a lack of transportation, and figuring out a way to help individuals get to and from their appointments is crucial to their health.

Despite these barriers, telepsychiatry can free up schedules, help with the expense of driving, and make it possible for someone in remote parts of the country to get the psychiatric care they need. Telepsychiatry serves as a creative avenue for support, allowing people to connect to a high-quality, specialty mental health provider from the privacy of their homes and enabling them to maintain their anonymity at a community level.

Telepsychiatry connects patients with specialty care

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tremendously difficult on families. From schools opening and closing to wearing masks to children losing caregivers – families have been through many changes. Through it all, people have been doing their best to find support.

Families, or anyone deciding to get help, may find themselves overwhelmed by the complicated system or the lack of available providers. Many patients will call a long list of providers to find out they’re calling the wrong type of provider once they have a conversation and realize they need a particular specialist, like a child psychiatrist.

Telepsychiatry helps healthcare organizations connect these patients with the right specialty providers. This level of access is incredibly beneficial to patients.

Overcoming technology barriers with telepsychiatry

Technology may be a barrier for some individuals who aren’t comfortable with virtual platforms. However, there are many steps organizations can take to help make technology more accessible to their patients, whatever the comfort level.

Here are a few steps providers can take to help increase patient comfort with technology:

  • Establish a rapport and provide education about what the experience will look like
  • Let patients know there is a backup plan if the technology fails
  • Reassure them that their appointment will not be lost if they’re disconnected
  • Remind the patient that they have support so they don’t feel overwhelmed

Taking these steps can help ensure technology doesn’t create a barrier or present itself as a barrier to seeking care.

By partnering with a telepsychiatry vendor that seamlessly integrates into your systems, patients in the community can access providers from across the country at their local clinic, regardless of what personal access they may have at home. Telepsychiatry creates an easy experience that meets people where they are with compassionate providers ready to provide support.

The importance of provider fit for healthcare organizations

With an increased rate of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder in communities across the U.S., increasing accessibility to specialty care has never been more critical. Healthcare organizations understand this need well, whether they’ve experienced barriers around the provider shortage or have had difficulty finding the right telepsychiatry provider.

At Iris, we work hard to understand your organization’s needs and find the right provider match for your population. This job-matching approach helps organizations find a provider who will be with them for the long term and establish a relationship with the same level of engagement as if they were on the ground.  DOWNLOAD PDF

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Iris Telehealth works with healthcare organizations across the country to bring high-quality, specialty psychiatry services to people who need them most. If you’re a healthcare organization looking to increase access in your community, Iris Telehealth can work with you to seamlessly integrate behavioral health services. Contact us today.

What to Ask When Selecting a Telepsychiatry Vendor

Delivering quality, sustainable behavioral health care should be a priority for any healthcare organization. However, this goal isn’t always attainable due to resource restraints or the current provider shortage. That’s where telepsychiatry steps in to help facilitate access to high-quality behavioral health care and extend existing behavioral health programs to healthcare organizations across the country.

While navigating the fast-growing and rapidly evolving world of telepsychiatry, finding a partner you trust is essential. The right partner should work with you to support the long-term well-being of both your organization and your patients.

But, how do you find the right fit? Read on to learn all the questions you should ask to ensure you find the most effective and patient-focused telepsychiatry partner for your organization.

General questions to ask a telepsychiatry vendor

With so much growth in the world of telehealth, this basic information has never been more critical in the vendor selection process. By asking the following questions, you can help narrow in on partners who can offer your patients high-quality, long-term care.

Questions to consider:

  • How many dedicated employees does the organization have on staff? If possible, ask if you can see an organizational chart broken down by department, person, and title.
  • How many clinicians do they currently have on staff? How many are W2 employees versus 1099 contractors?
  • Does the company have experience licensing providers through IMLC and ENLC?
  • How many psychiatrists have applied to their organization in the last year?
  • Can they provide 5-6 references? How long have they been working with their current partners?
  • How many of their partner organizations provide similar services to the one your organization offers?

These questions can help you determine which vendor can provide the most compassionate care your patients deserve. For example, you can learn a lot about care quality and provider access by asking how many employees a vendor currently has on staff or whether or not their providers are 1099 contractors or W2 employees. Gathering these insights is key to finding the right fit for your organization.

Telepsychiatry and the importance of job matching

Finding the right provider fit is key to your patients’ well-being and your organization’s success. By working with a telepsychiatry vendor that delivers job matching services, you can find a provider who meets your organization’s needs and fills in care gaps. However, not every telepsychiatry vendor can make successful, long-term matches. That’s why it’s important to know what questions to ask.

Questions to Consider:

  • Does the company have a rigorous provider vetting process?
  • What type of providers does the company have available? PMHNPs? LCSWs? Specialist providers like child psychiatrists or bilingual providers?
  • Does the company get to know your organization’s needs, culture, and values?
  • Will the telepsychiatry provider offer a meet and greet to ensure you and the provider are on the same page?

Getting the answer to these questions is essential for selecting a telepsychiatry vendor. At Iris, we believe job matching is a necessary piece of the puzzle. That’s why we created the Iris Match. We take pride in this approach, and we think it’s a crucial piece of the puzzle. When matching a provider with an organization, we work to ensure the match is mutually beneficial. We guarantee that by the end of our match process, your care team and your patients will love.

Telepsychiatry’s approach to quality control and assurance

Ensuring your patients get the high-quality mental health care they deserve is essential. But, how do you ensure that your potential partner can meet this requirement? One option is to review their recognized third-party accreditations and look into other fundamental aspects of their business model and priorities.

Questions to Consider:

  • Is the company Joint Commission accredited for behavioral health?
  • Does the company have experience meeting HEDIS measures or other quality benchmarks?
  • Is the company a medical group that’s clinician-led and clinically driven?

Joint Commission accreditation enables an organization to credential more quickly and offers assurance that you, as a healthcare organization, will receive high-quality services. At Iris Telehealth, we’re proud to be led by clinicians and healthcare experts and the only telepsychiatry company to receive Joint Commission accreditation for behavioral health.

Questions to ask about telepsychiatry implementation

Implementing telepsychiatry and successfully integrating the services into your organization’s workflow requires focused time, effort, and care about your practice, providers, and patients. Getting specifics on their approach is crucial to getting your service up and running successfully.

Questions to Consider:

  • Is the vendor technology agnostic? Can they seamlessly integrate within your existing platforms?
  • Does the vendor develop custom workflows?
  • Will the vendor’s providers use your existing EMR for notes and documentation?

At Iris, we provide best-in-class support that ensures your organization is set up for long-term success. We work within your existing systems and workflows to ensure a seamless transition for your team. Additionally, we take care of tasks like licensing and credentialing to help relieve the burden on your teams. By making integration as seamless as possible, we help set your organization and your patients up for success.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Iris Telehealth is dedicated to improving patient outcomes with exceptional behavioral health care while decreasing the burden on your care team. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about our approach to job matching, our in-depth expertise, or our best-in-class support.

How to Jumpstart Your Child Psychiatry Career

Over the past few years, child and adolescent psychiatrists have experienced a surge in demand due to the pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health. While many parts of the country have suffered from a shortage of child and adolescent providers for many years, the disruptions of COVID-19 have led to an unprecedented mental health crisis. Only last year, the surgeon general declared a national emergency for child and adolescent mental health.

Given this landscape, there are ample opportunities for child psychiatrists to provide help to patients across the U.S. With so many career and development opportunities, it’s critical for you to choose the position that is the best fit for you and your goals.

However, finding a fulfilling, flexible, and impactful job as a child psychiatrist can be difficult. That’s why, we’re here to help you get off to the right start and set yourself up for success (while preventing burnout). Read on to learn how you can find the best culture, setting, and organizational fit for you.

Finding the right care setting for you

There are some environments and work settings that will always have a high demand, like outpatient mental health centers, for example. Many providers go into outpatient care because of their interest in child development. With outpatient work, you can often see a child until they’re an adult and cultivate a long-term relationship with them.

Knowing what type of child and adolescent patient population you want to work with can help you narrow in on what care setting will work best for you.. However, this insight might develop over time. As you go through your career, clarity about whether you want to provide care for a specialty population, a specific age group, or specific diagnoses will become clearer. You might even have a good idea of your preference as early as your residency or medical school rotations. While you’re still early in your child psychiatry career, it’s okay to not have it all figured out yet.

Finding a good organizational fit

Securing a good organizational fit with a telepsychiatry vendor should be one of your biggest priorities as a child psychiatrist. By finding the right fit, you’ll be well positioned to deliver high-quality services to your patients while achieving long-term job satisfaction. However, finding the right position is more than just getting a spot on someone’s team.

When it comes to finding the right position for you at a healthcare organization or telepsychiatry company, asking detailed questions about the systems already in place for their clinicians is key to understanding the type of support and resources you’ll have available.

Here are four questions to ask your next employer to determine whether they’re a good fit for you:

  1. What support structures are available? Knowing what support structures are available to you is crucial to understanding how a given organization treats their providers. Support at a company or organization can look like having someone available to answer your questions, providing equipment for your practice, or even offering PTO and other benefits to their providers (we provide all of that and more for our Iris clinicians).
  2. What is the organization’s turnover rate? A high turnover rate can be a red flag indicating the organization is not meeting their providers’ needs – or, for a telepsychiatry company, making suitable matches for their providers. A low retention rate can raise questions about the workplace culture and values.
  3. Who is responsible for licensing, credentialing, and malpractice insurance? These administrative tasks can seem daunting to do alone. Working with an organization that handles or supports these tasks can make your work life a little easier, giving you time back to be the best child psychiatrist you can be. At Iris Telehealth, we tackle all the licensing, credentialing, and burdensome administrative work so our providers can focus on what they love most – providing exceptional care to their patients.
  4. How does placement work? Here at Iris, we provide matches based on experience, schedule preferences, prescribing philosophies, personality match, and much more.

How telepsychiatry can set you up for success

Telepsychiatry can help close the mental health care gap in rural areas for adults and children alike. For some youth experiencing mental health conditions or increased stress, it can be difficult to access appropriate, effective mental health care.

However, especially early in your career, it is important to learn how to use telepsychiatry effectively – whether or not you’re interested in a position as a full-time telepsychiatrist.

If you are using telepsychiatry with your patients, these tips can help you effectively provide care to your patients:

  1. Establish parameters with parents. When working with children and adolescents, it is vital for child psychiatrists to ask parents to agree to confidentiality rules before treating their young patients. Confidentiality is key to providing effective treatment as it can help build a relationship between you and the patient. The same expectation for confidentiality for in-person visits should be adhered to during virtual appointments.
  2. Check in with the child and parents. It is not safe to assume that adolescents are immediately comfortable with telepsychiatry, even if they are accustomed to technology through video games or social media usage. By checking in with them to see how they’re feeling about this modality, you can alter the method of care as needed and build a strong relationship with your patients.
  3. Adjust your camera setup. It can be helpful to zoom in and out with your equipment to observe kids play. By having the same vantage point as if you were in the office, you can provide better care.

Resources and training opportunities

Continuing medical education (CME) is important to facilitate life-long learning as a provider. By developing your skills and expanding your knowledge as a child psychiatrist, you can improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Here are some resources that can help you as you continue your journey as a child psychiatrist:

  1. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Telepsychiatry Toolkit: This toolkit covers a broad range of topics related to the implementation of mental health services for children and adolescents. Some areas include legal and safety issues, setting up your practice, telepsychiatry with children and adolescents, and working with special populations.
  2. AACAP’s Online CME Courses: The AACAP offers multiple self-study courses that can help your individual educational needs through videos and lectures. They also provide a test to gauge your learning.
  3. Medscape’s CME Learning Center: Medscape offers a comprehensive list of resources for child and adolescent psychiatrists. Various topics include telehealth, clinician burnout, management, and providing care to specific populations.

How Iris Telehealth can help

At Iris Telehealth, we take provider placement very seriously. Our matching process is set up to make sure you get placed at the best healthcare organization for your long-term goals, patient preference, and schedule. Your dream job could be here at Iris Telehealth.

We provide equipment, 24/7 tech support, CME credit, and malpractice insurance for our clinicians to support and help them thrive. In addition, we connect our clinicians with providers who can offer long-term career advice. Contact us today to see if our telepsychiatry services are right for you.

Clinician Corner:
Meet Dr. Jessica Jeffrey, DO

Iris clinicians are at the heart of what makes our organization such a special place to work. That’s why we’re turning the spotlight on the amazing work they’re doing every day. This month, we’re sitting down to talk with Dr. Jessica Jeffrey.

Q: How did you find Iris and decide you wanted to be an Iris provider?

A: I was working for a community mental health clinic, and when the pandemic hit, we quickly moved to telehealth. It was the first time using telehealth for just about all of us, but I found there was a lot I liked about it. Personally, the schedule worked well for my family. It also worked well for many of my patients, whether they were in rural or urban communities.

For patients in urban areas, telehealth made getting care easier because of the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth also worked well for patients with conditions that make it difficult to leave their homes and for moms with young children. It was much easier for these patients to see me from their kitchen table and not have to pack up maybe two or three children and bring them to the visit.

So, when I had the opportunity to look for a different type of clinic, I looked for telehealth. I applied to Iris because I happen to know Dr. Milam from my training days. I figured if Dr. Milam was associated with the enterprise, I should probably apply, and I did.

Q: What does a typical day as an Iris Telehealth provider look like for you?

A: I am part of a new initiative with a large enterprise partner in Pennsylvania who serves a wide range of patients in rural communities and some urban areas. They wanted Iris’s help managing the large influx of referrals coming into their clinic. Currently, I’m doing telehealth from home, and I’m working with adults. In the future, I’m probably going to start doing some on-call pediatric work on the weekends.

Before starting the clinic, we spent a lot of time coordinating with the partner and discussing potential issues – whether those issues were related to IT or crisis support. We also spent time working on the scheduling and getting to know the support staff. We talked with the LCSWs from Iris about how we would work as a team and how to triage and manage workflow.

Now that it has started, I mostly spend my time seeing new patients, and we have weekly meetings with the care team to assess what’s working, what’s not working, and how we can make this better.

Q: What do you love about being a telepsychiatry provider?

A: Well, number one, I love being a psychiatrist. I think it’s the most interesting medical specialty there is. There is a fair amount of medicine even within a psychiatry practice, which surprises some people. However, a lot of patients have multiple medical problems and because of the nature of their psychiatric illness, sometimes their physical health is neglected. So, our patients are often fairly sick and there is a lot of coordination with the other specialties, which I enjoy.

Being a psychiatrist is so interesting because you get to know the people and follow them. And outpatient care is like a new chapter in the book in learning about them. I’m very fortunate to be in this specialty.

I like the flexibility of being in telepsychiatry. It’s a little easier for me with my schedule. It’s also easier for the patients, especially for those who are going to have more trouble with transportation, whether it’s the expense of the ride, or not having a car. It’s not for everybody, but we’re doing a good job of making sure that people who are eligible for this kind of service can utilize it.

Q: How do you foster connection with patients virtually?

A: When I first have a visit with a patient, the first few things I tell them are, “Here’s what we’re going to do. If you have any problems with the connection, I’m going to call you right away. Don’t despair if there are problems with the communication or telehealth equipment.” Then, we launch into it. If you’re looking at the camera and talking to someone like they’re a human being, pretty soon it feels like a normal conversation.

I do have the advantage of practicing telehealth in what’s already a FaceTime, Zoom sort of environment. Many of my patients are already pretty familiar with having video chats with their friends and families. So, it’s not much of a leap to talk to the doctor.

Q: As a healthcare professional, how do you manage work-life balance?

A: At the end of the day, I try very hard to stop being Dr. Jeffrey and start being Jessica. I try very hard to keep those boundaries between work. We all have those moments where we’re thinking about a particular patient who was having a hard time when we’re brushing our teeth. But, when I’m off, I’m with my family and doing things I enjoy doing – and when I’m back at work, I’m in that mode, and that’s what I do. In psychiatry it’s important to have those distinct boundaries because there is so much of a human element to what we do. So, you have to be able to leave it in the office.

Q: What are your biggest learnings from your time at Iris?

A: Iris has been a lot of fun so far. The people I’m working with have a good sense of humor. They’ve been refreshingly vocal about maintaining boundaries and work-life balance right out of the gate. When you hear that coming from the administrative side, it’s very appealing for physicians because they don’t feel they’re the only ones advocating for work-life balance. So, I felt really good about that.

Iris has really impressed me in how they think about helping any particular partner. There’s an enormous amount of work that goes into the logistics of putting a new physician in a clinic, and supporting that clinic once it’s up and running. I came to understand that it’s more than just putting someone in the seat and filling a position, it’s the ongoing support with that clinic.

Working for Iris and with this partner is exciting because they’re working with you all along the way, to serve the clinic. This approach is probably quite unique amongst telehealth companies.

Q: Why do you think telepsychiatry is important to the future of mental healthcare?

A: It’s access. Many of the patients we serve, particularly in community mental health and larger university settings, are communities with the most access issues. Telepsychiatry is one of the ways we can bring access to these people — whether it’s meeting people where they are or increasing provider availability. By increasing provider availability, organizations can bring in physicians who may not necessarily be in that area. The expense and time commitment to recruit and bring a physician to a new location is enormous – so if organizations can recruit someone who may not be in that area but is willing to sit down and learn the locality remotely, then you’re improving access to patients.

At Iris, we believe our providers should be respected, valued, and applauded for the work they do, and we couldn’t be more proud to say, “thank you” to our very own Dr. Jeffrey. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

5 Common Questions about Telepsychiatry in the ED

Access to prompt, high-quality care is of the utmost importance for psychiatric patients seeking treatment in the emergency department (ED). However, with a nationwide psychiatrist shortage, patients are left waiting for care in EDs across the country. Fortunately, telepsychiatry can help.

Telepsychiatry is a seamless solution that helps health systems provide timely care to psychiatric patients while increasing throughput for EDs. Read on to learn the five common questions healthcare organizations consider when investing in this solution.

How does the telepsychiatry process work in the ED?

Initiating a telepsychiatry consult is similar to calling any other consult in the ED. Here’s how it works:

Step one: A clinician evaluates the patient and determines whether or not they need a psychiatric consultation.

Step two: If they do, the clinician enters the essential information into a paging system, and an assistant in the ED takes a telehealth cart into the patient’s room.

Step three: From this point, the consult is nearly identical to a standard face-to-face consult. After the evaluation, the telepsychiatrist promptly calls a designated individual (such as a social worker) to discuss the basics of the patient’s presentation.

Step four: Next, the telepsychiatrist connects to the telehealth cart and speaks with the patient in real-time. The psychiatrist develops a treatment plan that typically includes a disposition and communicates this plan with the attending ED doctor.

Step five: Finally, the psychiatrist writes a note directly into an organization’s EMR, and the consultation is complete.

With five simple steps, telepsychiatry can facilitate a seamless process for providers, patients, and the organization at large.

Can telepsychiatry integrate within any health system?

High-quality telepsychiatry solutions can be seamlessly implemented into an organization’s existing equipment, including their EMR, prescribing system, and protocols for managing operations. At Iris Telehealth, we’ve found this is a crucial step to help minimize disruption. We act as a technology-agnostic addition to an organization’s team by becoming familiar with and integrating into their existing systems and workflows, and we ensure all staff are trained on best practices for using technology and are comfortable with it.

What type of equipment do health systems need for telepsychiatry?

The equipment required for telepsychiatry is relatively simple. The nature of psychiatry (which requires a person to person connection, but no mandatory physical assessment) makes it a well-suited field for telehealth as there’s not much equipment needed beyond a computer. If an organization already has existing equipment – ranging anywhere from telehealth carts to laptops and tablets available for use – chances are a telepsychiatry solution like Iris can implement with your current systems without any additional work and without your care team having to learn how to use new tools.

How long do we have to wait for the doctor?

In most cases, the wait is less than 30-minutes from the initiation of a consultation to the psychiatrist being at the patient’s bedside. Timing is essential in all areas of medicine, but it is critical within emergency medicine. For high-quality patient care, things must run efficiently to allow the timely delivery of services to your patients.

A good telepsychiatry partner should have systems in place to initiate a telepsychiatry consultation as quickly as possible. With an active and dynamic call pool of dedicated psychiatrists or other appropriate behavioral health providers (including LCSWs and PMHNPs), organizations can ensure a system that consistently puts a provider at the patient’s bedside in under 30-minutes.

What makes for a successful ED telepsychiatry program?

Cultural fit can make a significant difference in the success of your telepsychiatry program. That’s why it’s essential to partner with a telepsychiatry vendor who aligns with your vision and values. This compatibility is vital at every level, from the leadership team to clinicians. In fact, at Iris, we’ve discovered that provider match is essential to the success of a telepsychiatry program. Our process connects healthcare organizations with providers, thoughtfully, based on experience and need. This process allows us to ensure an organization’s population get’s the specialty care they need, and providers can work within their specializations – allowing everyone to get the most value.

Telepsychiatry groups are only as good as their providers. We work with the best psychiatrists, PMHNPs, and LCSWs in the field who learn the needs and goals of an organization’s ED. Over time, we’ve found that our providers can build authentic relationships with an organization’s staff and truly become integrated members of their treatment team.

Get started with telepsychiatry today

At Iris, we ensure your ED is set up for success and help facilitate an implementation process that’s smooth and straightforward. Once complete, your patients will have 24/7 access to a behavioral health provider and spend less time in the ED waiting for care. Telepsychiatry is a powerful platform that delivers quick access to the high-quality care patients need when they need it – whether at home, in an outpatient clinic, or a hospital.

If you would like to learn more about how you can optimize your behavioral health strategy in the ED, contact us today.

Addressing Mental Health Stigma in Rural Communities

Mental health stigma is a serious problem that can cause people to opt-out of treatment for their behavioral health conditions. In fact, a study by the Cohen Veterans Network found that nearly one-third of Americans have worried about others judging them for seeking mental health services. While one-fifth of individuals say they’ve lied to avoid telling people they were seeking mental health care.

Stigma can prove even more challenging for those living in rural communities with limited access to mental health resources. This population deals with unique barriers regarding anonymity in their communities, health literacy, pervasive provider shortages, transportation challenges, and more.

However, despite these barriers, telepsychiatry provides an opportunity for rural communities to receive the same level of treatment as metropolitan areas, helping them overcome stigma and get the care they need.

Keep reading to learn more about rural health stigma, how to address stigma in these communities, and successful community approaches.

How mental health stigma manifests in rural America

Stigma can take shape in many different ways. Whether it’s fear of public stigma or self-inflicted judgment, getting care in rural America isn’t easy. Let’s look at three unique barriers that this population may encounter when seeking care.

  • Lack of anonymity: Small towns don’t have the same level of privacy that cities provide. For example, someone is more likely to blend in when walking into a mental health clinic in a metropolitan area. However, it’s more likely that someone could be seen by a neighbor when walking in to get treatment in a small town, or they may even know the person checking them in for their appointment. This lack of anonymity can compromise a person’s feeling of safety and keep them from seeking care.
  • Family concerns: Another level of concern associated with stigma is family. People in rural communities may not want their family history or things that have happened in their families to be disclosed to anyone else. There’s a common colloquialism in some rural communities about not “airing your dirty laundry in public.” This mentality can keep someone from opening up to a mental health professional and receiving the care they need.
  • Religious barriers: Seeking care for mental health can be viewed as a spiritual weakness or a moral failing in many communities. In fact, a study by the Mental Health & Prevention journal uncovered several common themes related to stigma among rural, low-income healthcare consumers. Some of the top themes were, “faking and pretending,” “get over it,” and “God is all you need.” Additionally, some individuals may view taking psychiatric medications as oppositional to their religion.

While this population may be up against negative sentiments in their communities, there’s also potential to change the dialogue around mental health. And understanding what this community encounters is essential to determining the best way to help them get care and break the stigma.

Three solutions to help break stigma around mental health treatment

Tackling stigma in these communities can happen in several different ways, from education and telepsychiatry to sharing experiences and social media. Let’s take a closer look at these three unique approaches.

  1. Education: Good education is an essential component to breaking stigma. For example, educating people that the brain is an organ, just like the lungs or the heart, can help them better understand mental health. This education can happen within families, schools, workplaces, and religious organizations. Additionally, healthcare organizations that partner with telepsychiatry vendors like Iris Telehealth can also take an active approach to education that reduces stigma.In their StigmaFree campaign, the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) encourages people to use respectful language that doesn’t define someone by their illness, challenge misconceptions, and avoid labels. For example, instead of saying, “they’re bipolar,” try saying, “they’re living with bipolar disorder.”
  2. Increasing access: Access is a significant barrier for people living in rural areas. However, telepsychiatry serves as a creative avenue for support in these communities. This virtual approach allows people to connect to a high-quality, specialty mental health provider from the privacy of their home. Telepsychiatry can enable this population to get help and maintain their anonymity at a community level.The American Psychiatric Association (APA) calls telepsychiatry’s reach into rural and remote areas one of the best successes of telemedicine. The APA also cites that satisfaction has been superior for patients, families, and providers.
  3. Spreading awareness: According to the APA, about three in four young teens experiencing depression look online to find personal stories from others who have previously suffered from the condition. This data underscores the importance of spreading awareness through sharing stories.Social media can be a powerful platform for those in rural communities. Social media can connect people with support from others who might be dealing with similar conditions. This connection can help people feel less alone, and when people speak up about their mental health, it can be an excellent avenue for reducing stigma.

Taking these steps can help create powerful change for those experiencing the effects of stigma in their daily lives.

Successful approaches to combating stigma in the community

Creating opportunities for behavioral health care in the community is a game-changer for this population.

  • Effective programming: Programs that assist with opioid use disorder have been effective in helping reduce stigma. By providing safe injection sites, and implementing harm reduction or replacement therapy, more lives are saved. While these programs are often misunderstood, the more people are educated on the serious outcomes of utilizing substances and how intervention can save lives, the more they understand.
  • Organizational solutions: Turning to emergency departments often feels like the best option for individuals living without adequate mental health resources. However, emergency care is costly. That said, hospitals that create opportunities for 24/7 behavioral care access can help better serve their communities with high-quality, on-demand services. Along with this organizational approach, communities can receive grants for crisis centers and other solutions that can help address mental health concerns outside of the emergency room. Instead of waiting for something to become a problem, putting preventive measures in place can be a more effective strategy.
  • Telepsychiatry: Finding providers can be a daunting task for organizations in rural communities. For Aroostook Mental Health Services, Inc. (AMHC) in rural northern Maine, recruiting and retaining high-quality behavioral healthcare providers was challenging. Specifically, AMHC needed psychiatrists specializing in children and adolescents and a psychiatrist for consultation help. That’s where Iris Telehealth came in to connect AMHC with high-quality, trained providers. Not only do their patients get the specialty care they need, but their physicians get the consultative support they need before prescribing or diagnosing certain conditions.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris, we partner with communities in need of mental health resources. By providing rural populations access to specialty behavioral health providers from around the country, we can help support their needs. Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how telepsychiatry can support your community.

How Telepsychiatry Helps Impact Social Determinants of Health

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are defined by the conditions of an environment where people are born, live, and work. Depending on an individual’s circumstances, these conditions can create and exacerbate mental illness and make it difficult to access mental health care.

Despite these challenges, healthcare organizations have the power to make meaningful change by bridging the gap between underserved populations and high-quality mental health care. By investing in solutions like telepsychiatry, healthcare organizations can positively impact their communities’ mental health.

Read on to learn more about why social determinants of health and mental health matter to healthcare organizations, how healthcare organizations can address them, and additional resources to help reach those who need care the most in your community.

Why SDOHs matter to healthcare organizations

Healthcare organizations are catching on to the importance of addressing social determinants of mental health. In a survey of 300 hospitals and health systems, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found that 80% of hospital respondents said their leadership team is committed to establishing and addressing social needs in clinical care. Providers see the value, too. The Commonwealth Fund reports that 80% of physicians consider addressing a patients’ social needs as critical as addressing their medical needs.

And, the potential financial impact of not addressing SDOH is substantial. An article by Modern Healthcare highlights a Chicago-based health system that discovered 26% of its medical inpatients had a co-occurring behavioral health issue that cost approximately $26 million annually in excess healthcare costs and increased the average length of stay by 1.07 days.

Taking an integrated approach that encompasses mental and physical healthcare needs is essential to helping underserved patients and maintaining organizational costs.

Identifying who needs help in your community

For those experiencing SDOH, lack of access to routine mental and physical healthcare can impact their quality of life. And the effects are widespread. In fact, in a study by Anthem, 60% of Americans believe their community faces at least some health issues related to SDOH. 23% say access to good doctors and hospitals is a major problem for those in rural parts of the country.

Anthem also found that Americans of color are disproportionately affected by the consequences of SDOH, citing mental health, safe communities, and access to affordable and nutritional foods were components significantly impacting their health.

Along with these challenges, there are specific factors that stand between individuals experiencing SDOH and a more sustainable quality of life:

Whether your organization aims to help a specific population or contribute to solving a unique issue in your community, you should consider a few things before getting started.

How healthcare organizations can address SDOH

With a pandemic and a growing provider shortage at play, helping patients get appropriate and affordable mental health care has never been more important or challenging.

So what can hospitals and health systems do to help relieve the burden on overworked providers while facilitating high-quality care for their patients? It starts by ensuring your teams are set up to address these challenges.

Consider the following:

  • What type of geographic access does your population have?
  • What resources are available?
  • Are people motivated to utilize these resources?
  • Do they have a support system?

When addressing SDOH in the community, chances are you might face some challenges related to stigma, transportation, and socioeconomic status. While these might be difficult to address, there are four solutions to these challenges that can help your organization realize optimal outcomes:

  • Stigma: For those facing stigma in their communities, providing a telepsychiatry option can be helpful. That way, they can receive effective treatment from the comfort of their homes, or through their primary care provider’s office, without the worry of being exposed for seeking help.
  • Culturally competent care: Using telepsychiatry can help organizations access providers who speak a specific language or have experience with a particular culture. This connection is highly beneficial to individuals who may not have someone locally who speaks the same language or can understand the unique aspects of their culture.
  • Technology and digital literacy: By partnering with organizations that seamlessly integrate into your organization, patients in your community can access providers from across the country at their local clinic, regardless of what personal access they may have at home.
  • Transportation: If patients have trouble getting to their appointment because of transportation challenges, telehealth can help them get the care they need from home. Along with a virtual approach, your organization can consider offering free transportation, or partnering with a ride-share company, to help individuals make it to their appointment.

Additional Resources

If you’re looking for additional resources to reach your community, check out some of the options below:

American Psychiatric Association: The American Psychiatric Association has collected a series of factsheets that provide an inside look into current mental health disparities experienced by diverse populations. This is a meaningful resource that your organization can reference when determining how and who to help.

Iris Telehealth: Iris Telehealth provides high-quality behavioral health services for patients across the country. Wherever the need, Iris meets people where they are, helping to break stigmas and defy geographic and economic barriers.

AHA Resources: The AHA provides recommendations on improving health equity or check out what they suggest your organization can do to ensure access to care. Whatever the need, AHA has a bounty of resources for reference.

RHIhub SDOH in Rural Communities Toolkit: RHIhub has compiled a toolkit of resources, including content around care coordination, community health workers, health promotion, telehealth, rural transportation, and more.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Iris Telehealth works with healthcare organizations across the country to bring high-quality, specialty psychiatry services to people who need them most. If you’re a healthcare organization looking to increase access in your community, Iris Telehealth can work with you to seamlessly integrate behavioral health services. Contact us today.

6 Qualities to Look for in a Telepsychiatry Provider

If you’re looking to hire a telepsychiatry provider but don’t know where to begin, we’ve got you covered. At Iris Telehealth, we’ve learned how to identify the qualities that make (and don’t make) a great telepsychiatry provider.

Whether you’re optimizing your behavioral health program or bringing in someone to help with the growing demand for high-quality mental healthcare, there are key considerations and questions you should be asking.

Before you post the job description

Getting started requires a deep understanding of your existing clinical workflows and how a telepsychiatry provider will integrate into your clinical team. By identifying potential roadblocks, you’ll be better prepared for future issues that, inevitably, will arise.

Key questions to consider before starting the hiring process:

Location

  • Will your telepsychiatry provider be completely remote, or will they occasionally come on-site? Location is a key consideration as it can affect workflows, clinical organization, and recruiting efforts.

Integration

  • How will your existing clinic workflows develop to include a telepsychiatry provider?
  • How will the patient’s experience change?
  • How will your current staff’s roles and responsibilities change?

Communication

  • How will you ensure open communication between your telepsychiatry team and your existing care team?
  • Will your telepsychiatry provider join regular care team meetings?
  • Will you set up a daily/weekly huddle with your on-site team and your telepsychiatry provider?

Training

  • Will you provide training for everyone to learn telepsychiatry workflow?
  • Who will develop and deliver this training?

Taking the time to consider these questions will help you find the right provider for your organization.

What makes a great telepsychiatry provider?

It’s important to note that not every excellent doctor is a fantastic telepsychiatry provider. We’ve learned it takes a strong and unique skillset to make a superb telepsychiatry provider.

Here are six key components that make up a great telepsychiatry provider:

They believe in patient-centered care. This belief can be said for any provider, right? Regardless of medical specialty or whether they’re on-site or remote, it is imperative. This approach to care is one of the most critical factors to ensure patient satisfaction and high-quality care. That’s why it’s essential to take the time to identify providers who put their patients first – but you don’t have to do it alone. At Iris, we provide a thoughtful job matching process that ensures every organization is matched with a high-quality provider who shares their values.

A team mindset is central to their work. It’s easy for remote employees to feel like they are a “team of one,” so it’s vital to foster a sense of inclusion between remote providers and on-site teams. Providers with a team-focused mindset tend to integrate well into existing clinical care teams and feel like they are genuinely a part of the team, no matter the physical distance. We all know it takes a village to care for our communities, and the better we work together, the better the outcome for our patients.

They’re self-motivated. It’s much easier to be held accountable when you’re surrounded by colleagues than it is when you’re potentially 3,000 miles away from them. Telepsychiatry doctors need to be self-motivated go-getters who can hold themselves accountable in their work. When it comes to having remote employees, there’s a level of trust that needs to be reached. That’s why at Iris we ensure organizations are set up to succeed, matching them with thoroughly vetted providers who become an indispensable part of the team.

They’re tech-savvy or willing to learn how to be tech-savvy. Telepsychiatry providers do best when they have an intermediate level of comfort with technology (and we’re lucky enough to have an IT team available to our providers 24/7). You want the technology to fade into the background during the patient’s experience.

They have a willingness to ask for help. Our providers are incredibly knowledgeable, but they also know when to ask for help. We’ve found that this is an important quality as you scale your team and continue to improve your program. Providers who don’t know how or when to ask for help may find themselves overburdened or stuck with an issue for days, especially since they can’t just walk down the hall for support. Instead, those willing to ask for help will increase productivity, improve quality of care, and foster a sense of camaraderie with on-site teams.

Independence is a part of their success. Your telepsychiatry providers will be interacting with patients all day, but they need to be independent workers. They’ll likely be in a home office, and independence is essential for anyone working from home. Their independence will help them remain motivated, but it is also just a good quality for anyone who will be alone for much of their job.

If you find a provider who encapsulates these characteristics, you and your organization will surely be set up for success.

How we know what works

Iris Telehealth is a telepsychiatry organization made up of only the highest quality behavioral health providers. We partner with health systems and clinics nationwide to bring mental healthcare to the communities that need it most.

We employ more than 200 psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners who are truly integrated as part of our team. We have a comprehensive and rigorous vetting process, and our tried and true method has given us the opportunity to work with the best in the business. Our partners and their patients also report a 97% average patient satisfaction rate with our services. With over 1.5 million patient encounters, we’ve found that our patients can seamlessly build relationships with their providers, even in a virtual environment.

If you need help finding the perfect match for your organization, contact us today.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Implementing Telepsychiatry

There’s a lot to consider when implementing telepsychiatry into your health system, but first, let’s explore what telepsychiatry really is.

Telepsychiatry delivers psychiatric assessment and care via telecommunications technology, typically video conferencing. This solution equips health systems across the nation with the tools to provide high-quality, accessible, and affordable mental healthcare to their patients. This approach has never been more critical as the demand for mental healthcare in the United States grows.

Telepsychiatry is transforming the way care is delivered. This solution allows hospitals and clinics in rural and underserved areas to recruit excellent providers and improve patient care while reducing and maintaining costs. So, where do healthcare organizations begin? It starts by asking three simple questions.

1. Why telepsychiatry?

Before you begin, determine why you need a telepsychiatry solution. Are you looking to add, maintain or grow psychiatric services? This answer will help you navigate to the right solution. A few things to consider:

  • Do you have psychiatrists but need a few more people to help with the patient load?
  • Is your health clinic located in a remote area where it’s hard to recruit or retain doctors?

Knowing whether your organization will use telepsychiatry to supplement in-person care or as the main vehicle to care is critical to determining your plan moving forward.

Next, determine which method will work best for your setting.

1. Are you planning to supplement current on-site psychiatric providers with a telepsychiatry provider? If so, you’ll need to determine how their workflows will mirror each other. You will also need to develop best practices for your care team’s communication.

2. Are you planning to exclusively use telepsychiatry in your organization? If so, then your on-site staff will need to be prepared to make small changes to the current workflow in order to integrate the remote provider and ensure your program is successful.

We have seen both approaches work successfully in various settings. Knowing which one you plan to use ahead of time is crucial.

2. What technology will you use to deliver telepsychiatry?

Take an assessment of any existing hardware and software that you can use for your telepsychiatry program. Regardless of your starting point, it doesn’t need to be complicated or require a significant up-front investment. Often, people already have equipment that can be repurposed for telepsychiatry, which often reduces the early fees of getting started. As far as software goes, telepsychiatrists will typically document into your existing EMR and use simple video conferencing platforms, like Skype for Business.

Even if you don’t have much equipment – or any equipment at all – startup fees are typically minimal. All you really need is a laptop with a high-quality camera and microphone, but knowing what you already have, and what you need, helps get the ball rolling.

3. How will you build your telepsychiatry program?

Once you’ve determined the “why” behind investing in telepsychiatry and have taken a scan of existing equipment that will help get you started, it’s time to figure out how you will build out your telepsychiatry program.

Key considerations

  • Will you keep your telepsychiatry program in-house?
  • Will you work with a telepsychiatry provider vendor?
  • Will you partner with a telepsychiatry provider services organization?
  • Do you have the know-how, equipment, and people to start a telepsychiatry department on your own?
  • Would you like the support, expertise, and assistance of an experienced telepsychiatry provider partner?

Many groups have the resources and infrastructure to start in-house telepsychiatry on their own. For other organizations, that’s simply not a desire, or even a reality. Picking a partner you can trust is essential. After all, they will be working with your patients and your staff. You want a partner that is a leading industry expert with the experience to be a true consultant, working alongside you every step of the way to develop and deliver a custom telepsychiatry solution.

Iris Telehealth has helped countless healthcare organizations across the country deliver high-quality, specialty care to their patients. If you’d like to learn more about how Iris can help implement a telepsychiatry solution at your organization, you can talk to an expert today.