How to Treat Geriatric Populations in Health Systems

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15% of adults aged 60 and over have a mental health condition. However, less than 3% of older adults receive treatment from mental health professionals. In some cases, this lack of care is due to inadequate access to mental health services, stigma, or other medical conditions that might need attention, too.

With the proportion of the world’s older adults estimated to almost double from about 12% to 22% between 2015 and 2050, it is more imperative than ever to start addressing both the physical and mental needs of this population.

Thankfully, telepsychiatry can connect older adults to quality mental health care, effective screening, evaluation, and treatment.

The state of mental health and aging

For older adults, there are several barriers that stand between them and getting the mental health care they need. These barriers might include access challenges, unnoticed behavioral health conditions, or co-occurring physical conditions that require treatment. Additionally, according to Mental Health America, 58% believe depression is a normal part of getting older, and only 42% of older adults would seek help from a health professional for depression.

This population can also be vulnerable to other mental health challenges like trauma and anxiety. Unfortunately, many of these conditions go untreated or undiagnosed, resulting in frequent doctor visits, emergency department visits, higher use of medication, and extended hospital stays.

While this population faces unique challenges, there is still great opportunity for them to get the mental health care they need.

How organizations can help effectively treat geriatric populations

As an organization, you can help support the geriatric population in your community by providing access to mental health care through telepsychiatry. Telepsychiatry is an essential tool that helps this population virtually connect with providers without having to navigate through waiting rooms or receive unnecessary exposure to outside elements. When patients connect with a provider from the comfort of their own home, it allows them to receive the care they need from wherever they are.

Whether your organization is seeing a large influx of older adults needing mental health care or you’ve just started integrating telepsychiatry, here are a few tips you can leverage to better serve this population.

Here’s how organizations can take action to offer a more effective and comfortable experience for older adults:

  1. Promote collaboration: The ED can be a costly and high-risk endeavor for older adults. That’s why having support for caregivers and providers can be essential. Before older adults need emergency department (ED) intervention, leveraging telepsychiatry can be a great way to de-escalate situations. Collaborating with caregivers and specialty care providers through telepsychiatry can allow older adults to receive mental health care from anywhere in the country.
  2. Empower caregivers: Caregivers may be juggling the care of their loved ones with their own full-time jobs, families, and even their personal health. As a solution, telehealth offers a new way to bring training to caregivers on their own time. Sharing strategies with caregivers about home safety and medical care through telehealth allows for a better quality of life for the older adults they provide care for at home. Equipping them with the right skills and techniques to care for their loved ones can be a beneficial resource for keeping older adults healthy at home.
  3. Intervene early: Having decision trees or care pathways in place for your providers to follow can keep older adult patients healthy between appointments. Rather than waiting, it’s better to intervene early by starting with screening. Leveraging the expertise of specialty mental health providers can relieve stress on care teams and take the pressure off primary care providers through collaborative care.
  4. Establish memory care units or dementia care: Memory care units or dementia care units can provide older adults with individualized services if diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia. It can also provide a safe environment for easy monitoring while promoting independence.
  5. Take a holistic approach: Provider collaboration leads to a holistic approach to patient care. While addressing the physical health of this population is essential, it’s important to screen them for mental health conditions as well. Telepsychiatry can offer an easier way to diagnose older adults and mitigate emergency intervention. Additionally, integrating a virtual care option can support your on-site team by allowing them to collaborate with other providers.

Promoting access to geriatric mental health through telepsychiatry

Providing telepsychiatry to older adults increases their access to the specialty mental health care they need. While this population may face a stigma that says they’re not tech-savvy, it isn’t true.

Technology usage among older adults has increased during the pandemic. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) reports that 44% of older adults view technology as a positive way to stay connected. In addition, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) says that telepsychiatry has helped treat many behavioral health conditions like dementia, anxiety, and others since the late 1900s.

Telepsychiatry for the geriatric population provides patients with a sense of autonomy while extending services to those who cannot leave their homes. As technology usage increases, older adults can feel at ease knowing they have options to take care of their health.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris, we believe that everyone should have access to mental health services in their community. If you’re an organization looking to incorporate telepsychiatry for your geriatric population, we can help. Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how telepsychiatry can help provide behavioral health services and increase access for older adults in your community.

5 Ways Telepsychiatry Will Impact the Future of Behavioral Health

As the healthcare industry evolves, one thing is certain: telehealth is here to stay. In fact, we believe that telepsychiatry is revolutionizing the way healthcare organizations approach behavioral health.

Below we share five ways telepsychiatry is shaping the future of behavioral health and how your organization and patients can benefit.

1. Telepsychiatry equalizes behavioral healthcare access nationwide

Telepsychiatry is far from new. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Iris Telehealth worked with healthcare organizations to leverage telepsychiatry to provide quality behavioral health care.

However, due to federal and state-wide telehealth restrictions, many patients were cut off from quality care due to their geographical location.

In fact, a 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that 25% of rural residents travel approximately 34 minutes to get to the nearest hospital. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) also reports that 150 million people live in mental health professional shortage areas. To make matters worse, many rural hospitals suffer from these shortages, and the AAMC says the country will be short between 14,280 and 31,109 psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in a few years.

However, after COVID-19 started impacting communities across the country, telehealth restrictions loosened, and suddenly millions of patients had the option to meet with their healthcare providers via a smartphone or another digital device. And, this level of access has continued.

By utilizing telehealth for behavioral health, Patients in both urban and rural locations can use telepsychiatry to access psychiatric services faster and get the care they need. They can also overcome financial constraints to psychiatric care, such as having to miss work or arrange childcare to travel to a psychiatrist’s office.

2. Telehealth increases medication adherence and follow-up visits

Mental health patients are often subject to being labeled with terms, such as “noncompliant,” “difficult,” and “frequent flyer.” But underneath these stigmas lies a stark truth: many of these patients are facing evidence-based barriers that prevent them from continuing their psychiatric care.

These barriers include:

  • Socioeconomic obstacles (e.g., poverty, lack of insurance coverage)
  • Feelings of guilt and shame
  • Misunderstandings around their mental health condition
  • Mistrust toward healthcare providers

Comprehensive patient support is vital to eliminating these hurdles. This support includes extensive education, accurate diagnosis, and targeted treatment from compassionate psychiatric providers – including through telehealth.

Through telepsychiatry, healthcare organizations can drive patient engagement while helping patients overcome stigmas, attend follow-up appointments, and strengthen medication adherence.

In fact, according to a recent 2022 Health Care Insights Study conducted by CVS Health, researchers found that over half of consumers say the availability of virtual mental health services would increase their chances of seeking care.

3. Telepsychiatry enhances patient-provider flexibility

For both patients and providers, long wait times are often a significant burden in behavioral healthcare. Telepsychiatry can help solve these issues by decreasing the time it takes for mental health patients to see a psychiatric provider.

Rather than waiting hours for an in-person visit, patients can speak with a telepsychiatry provider in minutes. Telepsychiatry meets patients wherever they are — whether in their home or another remote location. In addition, patients can receive information about their care (from the telepsychiatry provider) via text message or email.

This flexibility delivers greater patient satisfaction and wellbeing —all while lightning staff workflows and allowing healthcare organizations to grow their cost savings.

4. Telepsychiatry boosts collaboration among stakeholders

Innovations like artificial intelligence and telepsychiatry have given new meaning to collaboration. For example, in telepsychiatry, we can use the patient data — obtained from digital forms and other health tools — to guide psychiatric care and communicate more precise, targeted insights to the healthcare team.

We’ve also seen stronger collaboration among legislators in the form of bipartisan telehealth policies designed to address real patient concerns, including mental health care. This leads us to believe that telepsychiatry will continue to add significant value to providers and patients long after the pandemic.

However, there’s still a lot of work to be done. For starters, there are only hints of what telehealth reimbursement will look like going forward. Therefore, it’s important for healthcare organizations to stay on top of federal, state, and FDA developments. This focus will ensure your organization makes well-informed decisions when it comes to psychiatric patient care and support.

5. Telepsychiatry aids in the shift to value-based care

The healthcare industry is increasingly leaning towards value-based care — most notably, population health. This shift means the traditional fee-for-service model is slowly disappearing, thereby motivating healthcare organizations to remove silos and take a more holistic approach to patient care.

It can be challenging to understand all the different aspects of population health, let alone develop cost-effective strategies to implement it. That’s why it’s crucial to partner with vendors that can help your organization achieve sustainable population-health success.

For example, partnering with a technology-neutral provider like Iris Telehealth saves you from having to invest in a special software platform, electronic medical record (EMR), or equipment. By partnering with a technology-neutral vendor, qualified psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners will utilize your organization’s existing EMR and equipment.

That means an easier transition to a long-term telepsychiatry program, cost savings, more satisfied staff, and most importantly, better mental and population health outcomes.

The bottom line

Telepsychiatry has become the new normal and will continue to impact the telehealth behavioral health space in big ways. Whether it’s opening up access to quality care or helping EDs meet high patient demand, there’s no doubt that telepsychiatry has created a brighter future for behavioral health care.

People are leaning on telehealth as a tool to help them meet their mental health needs and the data speaks for itself:

    • 93% of providers believe virtual visits increased the chances of patients keeping their appointments
    • 71% of consumers believe virtual mental health services would be more convenient
    • 57% of providers believe access to mental health professionals would be very helpful to their patient population

If you’re looking for highly qualified, compassionate psychiatrists and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, Iris Telehealth can help. Contact us for more information about starting a telepsychiatry program that can improve your organization’s behavioral health outcomes.

Clinician Corner: Meet Dr. Tracy Mullare, MD

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 to our very own Medical Director of Outpatient Services Dr. Tracy Mullare.

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

A: My path to Iris was led by some grand rounds on telepsychiatry during my training that talked about provider and patient satisfaction. That planted the seed about telepsychiatry for me. I had a previous position many years ago where we did some telehealth work for satellite locations, which was very limited. I thought there was such an opportunity to improve that approach. It helped me see how telepsychiatry promoted access to care for patients that otherwise wouldn’t be able to see a provider.

I was also commuting over three hours a day and had a young child at home. I was thinking about what I could do to improve my quality of life while still engaging in the work I love to do alongside fabulous colleagues. I started to research and found Iris Telehealth. From the first conversation I had with the Iris team, I was impressed by the consistent commitment to delivering quality, patient-first care. You hear about that commitment all the time at Iris, and that’s been consistent since my first day here.

Q. What did your entry into Iris Telehealth look like?

A: I’m a child psychiatrist. That’s my passion. I started my work with Iris as a provider at an adolescent residential center. It was a long-term residential unit for children and adolescents experiencing trauma.

My days there usually started with checking emails and schedules. Then, there would be multidisciplinary team meetings involving outpatient clinicians, family, and parole officers (if they were in place). We would have several of those at the front end of the morning, an hour each, to round on the kids. Then, it would be followed by rounding individually on different patients that were at the residential unit.

Interwoven into that, all of us would be the documentation and collateral contacts. We were also on-call into the evening if acute situations arose for nursing. Still, the staff was so adept at handling crises that they would not reach out to me very often – a credit to them for handling acuity in the unit.

Q. How has your role evolved at Iris?

A: My role has evolved tremendously. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, I transitioned to the medical director role I have now.

The best part of my day is talking with providers. It’s been humbling to talk to folks across the country, particularly during the pandemic, to understand how it has affected the providers, patients, and communities.

To understand how everyone has addressed the need for continuity of care amidst changes when there have been lockdowns. It’s been an honor to connect with our providers and talk with them about their lives during the last couple of years; as things have evolved, behavioral health needs have increased, and how the intensity of patients’ needs has increased.

It’s also fun meeting with different clinical organizations that need great providers. We get to learn what they’re about and what their needs are. I know I speak for many of us on the team here that it’s so nice to be a part of things where we are contributing to the issue of access and really trying to move that forward. We hear time and time again stories from the clinic about how our providers are impacting their patients’ lives on a daily basis.

Q. What are the benefits of being a telepsychiatry provider?

A: At Iris, you always have an additional support system. You’re not only connected with your clinical setting, but you also have your Iris support teams that run parallel, like clinical operations managers (COMs) and additional IT support. There are measures in place that provide another level of support throughout the day, so providers never feel like they don’t have resources in place. You don’t feel isolated, which can happen when you do telepsych work.

I think another huge benefit of being a telepsych provider is that you can reach those rural areas that are so in need. You can reach underserved areas where they don’t have enough providers. Being a small part of the answer to the access to care issue is really wonderful.

Q. How can telepsychiatry providers foster connection with patients virtually?

A: First, meet the patient where they’re at, and ask how they feel about telepsychiatry. Acknowledging, “this could be weird,” or asking, “are you used to this?” or “Do you prefer it?” It’s just about understanding where the patient is with the experience and checking in with them. I think in the beginning, set the groundwork. Our clinics generally do a great job with expectations: the parameters for a telepsychiatry appointment, the confidentiality, they need to be in a secure location, how to connect, and the backup plan if connection is lost. The preparation helps it go well.

It’s helpful to continue checking in with patients to see how they feel about telepsychiatry. Many younger folks are so used to technology and take to it quickly. But some others may have more questions about it and want to make sure there’s no one else in the room. You just don’t know what people are thinking. It pays to check in with them and make sure they’re comfortable.

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

A: I think it’s a constant assessment and we all strive to achieve that work-life balance. I think what has helped me was eliminating my commute of three hours a day. I really had to look at my time, my values, and how I could work smarter. Telepsychiatry was the answer because I could be present for a longer length of time, which is a pleasure. I think that’s been helpful. The time management that telepsychiatry has afforded me has greatly improved my quality of life.

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

A: One of my biggest learnings was more of an observation because I can’t say I was surprised. I learned how many people are consistently committed to ensuring every patient visit happens, whether that be the provider, the clinic’s team, the clinic’s admin, Iris sales, or all the COMs.

Everyone is working so hard to make sure those patient encounters happen. And, during quarantines and lockdowns, they happened without interruption. It’s been a humbling learning curve to observe that machine and motion of everyone’s consistent passion for making sure folks get the care they need.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A: There are so many. I think at the end of the day it’s being a part of a team that is so aligned. We work hard because people need quality care and people are working exhaustively to make sure it happens. I think just being part of a team that helps ensure we have partnerships and relationships with clinics and have the right providers in the right place. I think that’s the most satisfying – knowing those patients are getting the care they need.

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?

A: I love the culture at Iris. I think it’s really fun. There’s so much enthusiasm and passion for what we do. Of course, there’s always been such a great behavioral health need, but there’s been such a demand. I love that I get to be part of a crowd whose passion it is to do this work, everyone has a commitment to doing it, and it’s just a really fun place to be.

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

A: I think it’s so important to the future of mental healthcare. The pandemic has really forced the need for telepsychiatry. When patients can commit to the clinics, even those that were doing telepsychiatry within the clinics, it was the only way to continue to deliver care. Patients like it and providers enjoy it. Outcomes studies show it’s effective. There is an ease about it for providers. It brings an enhanced pool of providers to different areas of the country where they wouldn’t have specialists.

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 Tracy Mullare! If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

How to Improve Child and Adolescent Care in Health Systems

Over the last several years, children in the U.S. have faced increased rates of mental health challenges and more barriers to the specialty care they need. Whether it’s long wait times, provider shortage constraints, or social determinants of health, getting care isn’t easy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),1 in 5 children have a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. Still, only about 20% receive care from a specialized mental health provider. This lack of access and increase in mental health challenges has been declared a national mental health emergency.

Thankfully, there are solutions in place to help increase access to mental health care for this population and help improve their experience in health systems and emergency departments across the country.

Best practices for providers treating children and adolescents

For families, seeking care for a mental health need can feel overwhelming. For children, it may feel like one of the hardest days of their lives. However, with the right support and best practices in places, providers and organizations can set children and families up for success.

Let’s take a look at a few approaches providers can take to create a more comfortable experience for children and their families:

  1. Acknowledge that the child is in crisis: Being in a psych unit can be daunting for anyone, and it’s especially stressful for children during an evaluation. That’s why acknowledging the feelings and emotions children and families may be experiencing is critical. By supporting them emotionally, you can help reassure them that their feelings are valid and create a more positive introduction to the health system.
  2. Work in conjunction with telepsychiatry providers: If your healthcare organization has partnered with a telepsychiatry solution, you have access to remote specialty providers with behavioral health expertise. This access to clinicians like psychiatrists, LCSWs, and PMHNPs, offers a great opportunity to collaborate and utilize their knowledge as a resource. Specialists can help guide the patient to the next level of care and offer valuable insights. By collaborating with other providers, your care team can enable comprehensive care and better health outcomes.
  3. Offer resources and support for families: Entering the mental health system for the first time can be scary, especially for children and families. Families may not know where to go or how to navigate the system. However, by leading with an empathetic approach and offering guidance, families may feel more comfortable with the process. By taking the time to hear them, see them, and direct them to the right resources, you can help children and families have a more positive experience.

Resources and training opportunities for providers

There are plenty of resources available for providers to learn more about best practices and sharpen their skills.

Here are a few resources and continuing education opportunities that can help set providers up to facilitate the best care possible to youth entering your health system:

  1. Medscape’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Learning Center: Medscape’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Learning Center offers several continuing education opportunities. Their learning center cover topics frequently encountered while treating children and adolescents in health systems, like youth suicide rates and risk, ADHD medication misuse, and mental health surveillance among children.
  2. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP): The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a non-profit organization that focuses on topics related to youth and adolescent psychiatric care. They offer clinically relevant, evidence-based pediatric resources for providers and can range from self-study courses, lectures from AACAP speakers, and tests.
  3. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): The American Academy of Pediatrics is a professional organization made up of physicians who focus on child and adolescent health care. They offer an assortment of video series and telehealth resources that are designed to help providers care for children and adolescents with mental health concerns. For example, they have a video series about how to help adolescents feel in control during times of distress which can be applied in the emergency department.

Telepsychiatry can bridge gaps in mental health care

Telepsychiatry is a powerful tool that can help children get the care they need, when they need it. Telepsychiatry is especially essential for children and families living in rural areas given 70% of American counties do not have a child psychiatrist. Telepsychiatry has been a significant solution in getting children the mental health care they need, no matter their proximity to the necessary specialty care.

When families have a virtual visit as an option for care, they no longer need to travel long distances to get support for their child’s mental health needs. Telepsychiatry helps support continuity of care and gives families the flexibility to make it to their appointments. Parents don’t have to take off work, kids don’t have to miss school, and providers can work from the comfort of their own home, too.

For organizations, telepsychiatry helps increase the number of specialty providers available to their community. Additionally, it can also help give on-site providers an opportunity to lean on remote providers for their behavioral health expertise. This collaboration allows for high-quality care and better patient outcomes.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris, we help ensure that children and families can get the high-quality, specialty care they need. That’s why we work hard to match healthcare organizations with the specialty providers they need to help their communities thrive – regardless of geographic barriers.

Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how telepsychiatry can help provide behavioral health services and increase access for children and adolescents in your community.

Best Practices for Youth Care in Rural Communities

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, alongside the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association, declared a national emergency in children’s mental health – citing the stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing fight for racial justice as key factors in the worsening mental health crisis.

These challenges have affected children across the board, and those in rural areas have been particularly affected. Given this population’s proximity to mental health resources and other unique barriers like transportation and economic hardship, getting behavioral health support isn’t always possible.

Thankfully, with the right solutions at play, healthcare organizations can help the youth in their communities access the right help at the right time – regardless of geographical barriers.

Common mental health challenges rural youth face

One of the first steps to helping rural youth is understanding their experiences. Rural communities face increased economic hardships and have fewer community resources available. Whether it’s medical or behavioral health care, there is a lack of options for individuals in rural communities.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of these barriers rural youth may face when seeking mental health care:

Less access to care: When fewer services are available, there’s a lack of opportunities for children to get help. If a child needs specialty care, their family may need to travel long distances. A commute to see a specialist may require time away from work and school – which may not be feasible for ongoing care.

Substance use challenges: Rural areas have experienced an uptick in substance use rates for youth and adults alike. When it comes to addressing these challenges in kids, it can be difficult to find the correct treatment. Additionally, caregivers who struggle with substance use may be unable to provide consistent care and support.

Mental health stigma: 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 religious barriers.

While these challenges might feel daunting, there are several best practices that can help create increased opportunities for mental health care.

The role of telepsychiatry in rural America

Gaining access to specialty providers can prove challenging for healthcare organizations in rural America. However, that’s what makes telepsychiatry an essential best practice for reaching youth in these communities. Telepsychiatry connects organizations with a large pool of providers from all over the U.S. to help ensure they have the right behavioral health specialist to meet the needs of their communities. At Iris Telehealth, we call this process provider matching.

This approach helps organizations find the perfect provider fit to address their communities’ challenges effectively. Additionally, telepsychiatry allows children to connect to high-quality, specialty providers from the privacy of their homes. Virtual access to behavioral health care also enables 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.

How healthcare organizations can support their communities

Reaching this community with high-quality care starts with implementing some best practices. Here are a few ideas your organization may consider to help support the mental health needs of your community:

Create a centralized location for care: When it comes to virtual care, ensuring patients have internet access is essential. For healthcare organizations in rural communities, that might look like creating a centralized place where patients can go for their appointments. In most clinical settings, a medical assistant will bring the patient into the room to ensure everything is ready to go for the appointment. This provider will confirm an internet connection and introduce the patient to the doctor.

Set expectations: When using telepsychiatry, setting expectations upfront is essential. This process may start with educating the patients about what they can expect during a telepsychiatry visit. For patients accessing their telehealth appointment from home, providers should let them know that all the rules for a confidential in-person health appointment apply to telepsychiatry. Providers can also check in with the patients and families about how they’re feeling about telehealth, ask what’s working, and let them know that it might take time to adjust to the platform.

Educate the community: Healthcare organizations can reach more kids by communicating with schools about what behavioral health support is available. This approach also connects healthcare organizations with school counselors who can make referrals.

Provide family support: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a prolonged trauma. Research from previous disasters and traumas show that a child’s ability to handle stress is directly related to their caregiver’s ability to handle anxiety. So, making sure that the child’s caregiver has support is a central component in helping a child’s mental health.

Amid a behavioral health crisis, there’s always a need for education around anxiety related to going back to school, the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence, and anything else that may occur in the community. Thankfully, there are always outreach opportunities to educate families, provide support, and increase awareness of available community resources.

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.

17 Resources for Finding Telehealth Grant Funding Opportunities

Finding the right grant for your organization takes time, but if you know where to look, this process can be much easier. In our grant funding blog series, we’ve provided tips and insights to help you and your organization through the grant process.

In our last two posts, we talked about how to identify your telehealth grant funding needs and provided an overview of the four main types of grant funding sources. Now that you’re equipped with the correct information, your organization can begin a more informed search for telehealth grant funding opportunities.

Many resources exist, both paid and no-cost, to help you uncover potential funding sources and refine your search for the best alignment between grant program goals and your project. The following 17 points illustrate key grantor search resources available to help your organization find telehealth grant funding.

1. Search for grantors using paid grantor search services

Today, certain software platforms offer paid access to their sources for grantor searches. These platforms, such as Pivot or Foundation Directory Online, perform much of the data collection, sorting, and analysis you need to identify potential grant funding sources.

While these services save considerable time and legwork, they often come with a hefty price tag — especially if multiple providers will be using the platform. Determine whether you’re going to be looking for grants frequently and consistently enough to justify the expenses for those paid services.

2. Hire professional grant writers

Hiring a professional grant writer could mean an investment in finding more and better-aligned funding sources. Grant writers perform these tasks regularly and may have access to and experience with multiple platforms for grantor searches. Particularly for larger or more complex telehealth projects, it may be more cost-effective to hire a professional grant writer with the experience and skills to handle the grantor search for you.

3. Contact your local library

Some libraries have access to grant-seeking sources and other information that they make available to the community. These sources may guide you to funding opportunities and data sources for your applications.

4. Reach out to local community foundations

Local community foundations may be able to offer insight into corporate resources and regional funding opportunities through foundations, either their own or others in your area. They may also have limited knowledge or access to programs at the state and federal levels. Not all communities have community foundations, but they can be a valuable source of information and connections if yours does.

5. Research funding sources of peers and competitors

Through online searches of your peers and competitors, you can take a closer look at who has supported them financially to give you ideas about potential funding sources. Make contacts within your networks and gather and share information about what other providers have done to see what was and wasn’t successful.

6. Network with large, regional companies operating in your area

If you’re considering corporate sources of funding, one easy way to begin your search is by researching large, regional companies operating in your area. These companies may offer their own funding programs or partner with a foundation to award funds to healthcare projects.

7. Research active philanthropists in your area

Active philanthropists who are living in or are invested in your community or region could be valuable grant funding sources. Other local foundations and philanthropic organizations may list these individuals as donors on their websites.

8. Look at peer organizations’ listservs

Many peer organizations have listservs, and you can read through their updates about their telehealth projects. If their project seems to align with your interests and goals, join these listservs and start conversations to find out how and where they source funding for projects. This research can provide information on potential funding trends in the more focused areas you want to approach.

9. Check out resources and opportunities from local and national professional organizations

Both local and national professional organizations often host webinars and provide other information about funding opportunities. Some of these organizations may even help you connect with other individuals or organizations that have implemented or funded comparable projects.

10. Research state agencies relevant to your telehealth needs and patient populations

State-level agencies, particularly those in the realm of healthcare, telehealth, and the patient populations you serve, can offer support to your grantor search. Contact officials at those agencies and monitor their websites regularly for information, changes, and past featured projects. This research can give you insight into how you could design your project to meet what those grantors want.

11. Regularly check Grants.gov for federal grant funding opportunities

When searching for grant funding opportunities at the federal level, Grants.gov offers a wealth of information, but it requires you to allocate adequate time to utilize it most effectively. Be strategic in your searches by registering the agencies and type of project you are interested in, then narrow down your search to find the best grantor matches for your telehealth project.

12. Utilize no-cost sources of information relevant to your needs

For some areas, other no-cost grant sources of information, like the Rural Health Information Hub, regularly post grant funding opportunities–some quarterly, monthly, or even weekly.

13. Browse college and university databases

Colleges and universities may have access to some of these for-fee grantor databases that you might be able to use, particularly if you have a professional connection to the institution.

14. Research regional grantmaking centers

You can search online for regional grantmaking centers or grantmakers organizations for information about funding opportunities in your area.

15. Prepare a common grant application

If you decide to pursue and prepare a common grant application, you can obtain a list of grantmaking organizations that use the common grant application to expand your search further.

16. Contact financial institutions in your area

Financial institutions in your region may have departments that handle private foundation funds or donor-advised funds, which could be a source of funding and grantor information.

17. Speak with vendors of the telehealth equipment and software applications you need

Research and contact vendors of the types of telehealth equipment and software applications you’ll be using. They may offer information about other projects implemented in the past and how those projects received funding.

Most of these resources are free and accessible to any provider, but you need to allocate adequate time to utilize these often comprehensive resources. With persistence and consistent effort, you can find an array of potential grant-funding opportunities that align with your telehealth project goals.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris, we’ve always got our eyes open for new grant opportunities and share what we find in our monthly newsletter the Iris Messenger. If you’d like to sign up, you can check out this page for more information.

Marian Chambers is a Grants Consultant at Professional Grant Writers, a full-service grant writing agency that works with nonprofit organizations to identify and apply for grants to fund their programs.

How to Effectively Incorporate Telepsychiatry Into Your Care Team

Expanding your team with remote providers benefits your on-site clinicians, patients, and organization overall. Whether you’ve already got a hybrid of on-site and remote providers working for your organization or you’re adding new virtual clinicians to your team, there are several tips and tricks that can help you along the way.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits, common challenges, and recommendations for providers and organizations to help effectively integrate telepsychiatry into your care team.

What does a truly integrated remote and on-site team look like?

When your clinician team is technically, culturally, and logistically well-integrated, your remote providers will feel and operate like an extension of your on-site team.

So, what does true integration look like exactly? Culturally, this integration can include participating in care team meetings, joining clinical medical leadership discussions, invitations to conferences, social or outside-of-work team events, and even fun gatherings like happy hours. This inclusion can help providers feel more comfortable by allowing them to spend time with other clinicians on their team.

The technical and logistical aspects of provider integration are also crucial in building long-term partnerships. That’s what makes a meet and greet so essential. This process can help ensure a good match between the providers and clinic staff before bringing them onboard.

The benefits of effectively incorporating telepsychiatry into your organization

When remote care teams are integrated and work together smoothly, on-site providers, organizations, and patients can all benefit.

Here’s how:

Collaboration of care: The initial patient evaluation, typically an hour long, is the most commonly missed by patients. With remote providers to lean on, your patients will never miss out on care because they can’t make it to an on-site appointment.

Addressing specialty mental health needs: The main advantage of having remote behavioral health providers on your clinical team is managing a broader spectrum of behavioral health care needs. Having on-site and remote providers gives patients more options and opportunities to get the care they need. Your organization can learn how to seamlessly address mental health care in your space through collaboration and coordination of care. Telepsychiatry helps elevate collaboration even further by making specialty providers with specific mental health expertise readily available for organizations, on-site providers, and patients.

Increase in patient comfort: Many remote providers appreciate seeing a patient in their home environment as it can inform care and make the patient feel more comfortable. For patients with anxiety who aren’t comfortable leaving their houses, telepsychiatry can be a particularly beneficial option. In fact, 85.52% of patients report that telemedicine has made getting the care they need easier.

Solving common integration challenges

So, what happens if a remote provider doesn’t appear to be a good match with the organization? It’s natural that there might be initial challenges when bringing new providers onto your care team. At Iris Telehealth, we help with common integrations and ongoing relationship challenges by facilitating and guiding the communication between provider and organization.

Our teams are invested when the clinician is introduced to an organization and stay engaged throughout a provider’s service. By advocating and mediating for both organizations and providers, we ensure the relationship, and ultimately patient care, remain high-quality.

Additionally, we get ahead of potential challenges by ensuring the clinical match is right the first time. We call this process “provider matching.” Provider matching can be a great way to combat these common integration challenges. Furthermore, working with an organization that delivers proven provider matching services is invaluable to seamless integration. However, if things aren’t going smoothly logistically or culturally, we’re still there to help. We’re looking for long-term matches that will meet your needs and match you with the perfect provider for your team.

Communication tips and recommendations

Naturally, as teams integrate, remote and on-site providers might experience growing pains and need to settle into new workflows. However, knowing a few tips and tricks can set your organization up for success. Here are four ways to embrace remote providers and help them feel like a part of the team:

  1. Clear communication: Communication is key for providers working in a remote setting. By figuring out how you’ll communicate with your remote colleague, you can provide the best care for your patients. Consider whether you’ll communicate through the EMR or video or audio-only calls. Additionally, knowing the frequency of communication can also help set expectations between providers.
  2. Be upfront with expectations: Be sure to communicate expectations upfront. That way, everyone will know their role when the time comes to provide the best care possible for their patients. The best way to ensure seamless integration is to prepare the operational conversations about bringing in a new provider. This operational conversation can be in the form of an interview or a meet and greet, where the provider and clinical team can discuss practice philosophies, scheduling preferences, and other essential logistics. Additionally, you can discuss what types of patients your organization sees, how patients are managed, avenues of care, and anything else you want your remote provider to be aware of. If you’re an organization new to telepsychiatry and unsure what to ask, that’s okay! At Iris, we facilitate these conversations and work to ensure the clinical match is a good fit.
  3. Regular meetings: You can facilitate team collaboration and integrated patient care by blocking time for meetings that include your remote provider. For example, some providers have meetings with their on-site teams where they can bounce ideas off each other and connect. Offering ways to collaborate outside of seeing patients is an excellent way for integrated teams to provide excellent care while getting to know each other.
  4. Don’t treat remote providers as contractors: Remote and on-site providers have the same goals and work on the same team. Remote providers tend to be happier and stay longer when they can connect with other providers and feel included in their organization.

How Iris Can Help

At Iris, we match you with providers who can integrate seamlessly into your care team technically, culturally, and logistically. With nearly a decade of experience, we share our best practices and expertise. Iris can help you fill gaps in your behavioral health services, whether it’s therapy services or various in-patient or outpatient psychiatric care. One of our core values is people over all else and our providers and partners are no exception. If you’d like to learn more, contact us today.

Top 5 Common Questions about Being a Remote Behavioral Health Provider

Table of Contents
How does the ED telepsychiatry process work?
Can telepsychiatry integrate within any health system?
What type of equipment do health systems need for telepsychiatry?
How long do we have to wait for the doctor?
What makes for a successful ED telepsychiatry program?
Get started with ED telepsychiatry today

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, implementing ED 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 organizations consider when investing in emergency telepsychiatry for mental health care.

How does the ED telepsychiatry process work?

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. After that, 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 in-person 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?

One of the telepsychiatry benefits that’s helpful to organizations is how it 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-neutral addition to an organization’s team by becoming familiar with and integrating into their existing systems and workflows. 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 person-to-person nature of psychiatry makes it well-suited for telehealth. This perk is a central telepsychaitry benefit as there’s not much equipment needed beyond a computer.

If you already have equipment like telehealth carts, laptops, or tablets, you’re implementation will likely be seamless. Iris can implement within your current systems without any additional work and without your care team needing to learn new tools.

How long do we have to wait for the doctor?

In most cases, the wait is less than 30-minutes. That estimate includes the start 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 telepsychiatry. 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 emergency 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. It also allows providers to 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. Our providers 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 ED 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. Most importantly, they’ll spend less time in the ED waiting for care.

Telepsychiatry benefits the entire organization. It 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.

Clinician Corner: Meet Dr. Chris Heh, MD

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. Chris Heh.

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

A: Six years ago, I was making a job transition and was looking for something that would provide me with flexibility. I saw Iris’s website, which was user-friendly, creative, and well designed. I called them up, and we met. They said I would be a good fit for the team. They were good people, and I decided to start working with them.

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

A: It’s quite variable, and it all depends on what type of work you’re doing. I’ve been with Iris for about six years, and I’ve had the ability to work in various areas of psychiatry. For example, I worked for an inpatient eating disorder unit for children and adolescents, for a geriatric inpatient psychiatric service, and now I do consultation-liaison work. It’s hard to say what a typical day looks like because each setting looks different.

I’ve worked in community mental health on an outpatient basis, too. In general, in the inpatient or consultation-liaisons service, you move from one patient to another. With telepsychiatry, you don’t have to walk up and down the hallways, the patients usually just pop up on your screen, which makes it very convenient. We have lots of support. For example, our clinical managers make the appointments and make the phone calls so we can see the patients. There’s a great deal of ease in seeing patients. A typical day is what you’d expect if you are in person, in some sense, except that we do it via televideo visits.

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

A: It’s not just what I love about being a provider, but what I love about working with Iris. One of the things I love is that I’m able to move through different facets of psychiatry, everything from the eating disorders unit for children and adolescents to inpatient psychiatry to community mental health. The breadth of psychiatry is just amazing. I can see an assortment of patients in very different settings. For someone who likes variety like me, that’s great.

In general psychiatry, they always say time is priceless. I don’t have to spend 15-minutes grooming, getting my lab coat on, taking 30-minutes to drive to the hospital, or maybe taking five minutes walking around the unit trying to locate each patient. You save a lot of time, and you don’t realize it. If you think about it, it’s maybe two hours a day. You multiply that two hours times five days a week, that’s 10 hours, and I can use those 10 hours to do something more fun.

Q. How do you foster connection with patients virtually?

A: It’s really important to make time and adjust your approach to effectively build that connection when you’re a telehealth provider. And that’s especially important with kids. If you talk to children in a monotone voice, if you’re expressionless, they’re going to turn you off just like a bad tv show. You have to put your game face on, you have to be animated, you have to change the pitch of your voice, and the cadence of your speech, so it’s a little different. Since you’re not in person you have to be more animated. That’s how I try to keep my patients engaged.

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

A: It’s actually easier in some sense doing telepsychiatry. I have more free time. I think work-life balance depends on the person. I tend to be a workaholic. So when Iris says they have extra consults available, I usually take a look. However, when other Iris clinicians are too busy or have to take time off, Iris respects that, too.

I think work-life balance comes down to the person and what they want. It’s always a struggle, and you never think you got it right. It’s an infinite balancing act.

I was doing doubles, and the people at Iris were compassionate and asked, “Is that what you really want to do?” They worry about you getting burned out, and sometimes you need to be reminded. And I appreciate that. They always say, “Hey, thanks for working so hard, but are you working too hard?” That tells you they care about you.

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

A: One of the nice things is I’ve been able to see patients in California, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and so on. You think psychiatry is the same wherever you go, but it’s not. You have regional differences, county differences, and neighborhood differences. Your standard in one neighborhood may be different in another city or state. It’s interesting just to see the commitment laws throughout the United States are different, too. That makes it interesting and challenging.

Seeing how other people in other parts of the country treat their patients versus in your hometown is fascinating. Some of that you can carry over to other settings and say, “Hey, look, we do it this way over here. Have you thought about that?” Some people sometimes stay in a position for 30 years in the same old palace. Well, telepsychiatry is different. I can practice in five different states, in five different ways, and I find that very enriching.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A: There are many aspects. One is the patients themselves. There are some areas where psychiatry is so desolate, and they just don’t have enough psychiatric care. And, when you meet some patients, and you get feedback from them, they say, “Hey, thanks for spending time.” I find it very satisfying because Iris reaches out to these communities where psychiatric care is minimal and unavailable.

Iris has done a very good job of picking the right people for the right positions. When you’re working with other people of the same caliber and excellence, that makes your job so enjoyable. When you’ve got colleagues you can depend on and colleagues who also have a high standard of care, they make you better. I think having good people to work with and people who are just as competent, if not more competent, sharpens you and allows you to grow.

Q. What do you love about working with Iris?

A: There are so many aspects. Number one, reimbursement is fair, and that’s important. There are always ways to increase your income. I think the flexibility in the scheduling is very good, and there are various shifts you can take. The other thing I like is that they have very responsive management. You have people who look at you as a person, and not someone who is just a simple cog in the wheel who can be replaced. They appreciate you, and you can sense and feel that. You’re not just treated like a number. I’ve had a nomadic life in psychiatry. I’ve moved around a lot. I’ve been with Iris for six years. For me, to stick with anybody for six years is unusual. So, they must be doing something right.

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

A: First and foremost, telepsychiatry is important because there are just certain areas in the United States where psychiatric care is desolate. For remote areas, it is essential because patients aren’t going to drive 20 miles to see a psychiatry provider. I think it is really important in those areas where there’s a lack of care. They need psychiatric providers. The other thing is to get a psychiatrist at midnight to come into your emergency room – who will do that? There aren’t too many. If there are, they don’t last too long.

Telepsychiatry is here to say, and it’s simply because there aren’t enough physicians or psychiatrists. From a treatment standpoint, it provides care instantaneously, when you need it, like in the middle of the night when there’s no one around. I’m glad it’s there because you need professionals when no one else is around during those critical times. Telepsychiatry has been growing and growing, and I don’t see it going away.

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 Chris Heh. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.

How You and Your Organization Can Benefit from Holistic Healthcare

Mental health is essential to a person’s overall health and well-being. While there’s no denying that physical health can help a person feel great, someone’s mind can affect their body just as drastically. For example, research shows that neglecting mental health can lead to serious physical health conditions, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.

Increasing access to behavioral health care can help diagnose and treat more patients and also help fight the stigma attached to having a mental health diagnosis. Introducing and expanding behavioral health services into your CHC, FQHC, hospital, or health system is an excellent first step towards eliminating stigma in your community and helping more people get the holistic care they need.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can educate your organization on mental healthcare and implement your first behavioral health program.

Educating your organization on mental healthcare

Whether your healthcare organization is planning to start your behavioral health program from scratch or considering expanding your services, your work can significantly impact the community. However, starting that process may feel overwhelming. Remember, a lot of the critical work around building a successful, patient-first behavioral health program starts with your care team.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when talking to your team about mental health care:

  1. Education: Effectively preparing your providers to support patients with mental health conditions is all about education. Your organization can educate your staff on different behavioral health conditions and common diagnoses they might encounter and empower them to have better conversations surrounding mental health.
  2. Person-first language: One important skill is to teach person-first language (for example, you would say a person diagnosed with schizophrenia, not a schizophrenic). It may seem like a minor change, but switching how you categorize or classify your patients can help them feel more empowered to have real, vulnerable conversations about their situation.
  3. Emotional impact: Your care team should recognize that treating people with mental health diagnoses can have a unique emotional impact on providers. Your organization should emphasize the importance of your providers not becoming desensitized to patients’ challenges. You can help your providers prevent burnout by opening up communication channels with them and implementing support systems at the organizational level. It’s essential for your organization to not become desensitized to patients challenges nor take them home with them at the end of the day.

Implementing your first behavioral health program

Once you’ve thought about bringing mental health care into your organization and believe it’s a good fit for your patient populations, now comes the process of implementing behavioral health services into your workflow.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you move forward:

  • Your patients will likely be discussing very personal and vulnerable topics when they come in for a behavioral health appointment. That means housing your behavioral health services in a space that allows them to feel comfortable opening up is essential. Your space should be physically and mentally safe for patients and have procedures in place in the event that a patient expresses an intent to harm themselves or others or becomes combative.
  • You’ll also need to be ready to make a change in how you schedule providers. Mental health care cannot run on a traditional medicine model in which a patient waits for half an hour to meet with a doctor for a short conversation. You should plan to schedule ample time for the important conversations between providers and their patients.
  • If your new program is your organization’s first experience with psychiatry, you’ll want to make sure you hire nurses, medical assistants, and doctors who have experience working in behavioral healthcare. By utilizing a solution like telepsychiatry, you’ll gain access to the best providers from all around the country.
  • Check out some of these resources to learn more about the benefits of behavioral health integration from an administrative point of view and directly from nurses in the field.

Integrating holistic care into your organization’s culture

For providers at the frontline of the country’s mental health crisis, it’s important that they feel empowered to seek help if they need it as well. Integrating holistic care into your organization also means ensuring your providers feel supported in their mental health. Often, as behavioral healthcare professionals, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that they’re not susceptible to mental health conditions in the way that others are, but that’s not true. Anyone and everyone can struggle with their mental health, and there’s no shame in reaching out for a helping hand.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

One of the most challenging parts of starting a behavioral health program can be finding high-quality providers that seamlessly fit into your organization. That’s where telepsychiatry comes in. At Iris Telehealth, we connect organizations with high-quality, specialty providers from all over the country. Our large geographic pool allows us to connect organizations with the behavioral health support they need to help their community thrive. To learn more about how Iris Telehealth can help you implement a telepsychiatry program, contact us, and we’ll be happy to provide you with the information you need to get started.