With the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), safety precautions required physical distancing measures of stay-at-home and social distancing. While these precautions protected individuals from COVID, these precautions also created a new challenge for rural individuals in receiving mental health care. In response, healthcare providers began making changes in service delivery for mental and behavioral health treatments. “Changes have surrounded relaxing privacy requirements required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules and increasing use of telehealth to deliver behavioral health treatment and services,” (CRS, 2020). But will these changes be enough considering the post pandemic mental health illnesses are expected to increase (Kathirvel, 2020).
One potential answer to reduce disparities in access to mental health counseling in rural areas is telehealth (The relationship between access to mental health counseling and interest in rural telehealth, 2021). The following study will
Problem: Telehealth is being explored as potential tool for bridging gaps between healthcare providers and patients, yet, HC managers/leaders perceptions of telehealth effectiveness is unknown.
Aim: The focus of the assignment is to gain insight into the effectiveness of telehealth in supporting rural healthcare.
• Review the article, Telehealth in Community Clinics Three Case Studies in Implementation.
• https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-TelehealthClinicCaseStudies.pdf
• Select one of the three presented models:
o Open Door Community Health Centers
o La Clinica de La Raza
o Southside Coalition of Community Health Centers
• Identify a rural area in need of medical care for which you are familiar.
