VA reaches out to rural vets with ‘telemental health’ services
Seeking to make it easier for combat veterans living in remote areas to access mental-health services, the Department of Veterans Affairs is opening five “telemental health” hubs.
Formally called VA Mental Health Telehealth Clinical Resource Centers, the hubs will operate out of sites scattered around the country, according to a VA announcement.
One site is already up and running. Focused on the most severe and complex mental health issues, it’s located in West Haven, Conn.
The others are expected to open this summer, with “priority given to VA medical facilities in urgent need of additional mental health providers,” according to the announcement.
The plan was rolled out May 16 by David Shulkin, MD, the VA’s undersecretary for health, who spoke at the annual meeting of the American Telemedicine Association in Minneapolis.
“We are in the midst of the largest transformation in the history of VA with MyVA, which means we are reorienting what we do around the needs of our veterans and providing care when, how and where they want to receive that care,” Shulkin said. “These mental health telehealth resource centers will provide our veterans in underserved areas the expert mental health providers they may not otherwise be able to obtain locally.”
VA says it currently uses telehealth to serve more than 677,000 veterans, which amounts to approximately 12 percent of the 5.6 million vets who receive healthcare from the VA.
Read the full announcement here and check out VA’s growing telehealth service lines here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.