Increasing access to rural mental health care using hybrid care that includes telepsychiatry.

There is a lack of access to mental health care in rural areas of the United States. One strategy for increasing access and improving health outcomes for rural is offering hybrid psychiatric care, a combination of in-person and telepsychiatry . Although prior research has shown telepsychiatry can help overcome barriers, there is a lack of research on the use of hybrid care for patients in rural following an inpatient admission or an emergency department visit—a time when patients are in high need of follow-up care. The aim of this project was to process and outcome measures associated with mental health to determine the of delivering hybrid care to Medicaid-covered patients in rural Missouri an inpatient admission or an emergency department visit. Data from 242 were analyzed using a retrospective quasi-experimental design. The group with telepsychiatry plus in-person visits had improved timeliness of care and increased of total outpatient encounters compared to the group with in-person only, indicating hybrid care may be more effective than in-person visits alone are. current study suggests that offering telepsychiatry can help close the gap in access mental health care between rural and urban populations, particularly during the time an inpatient admission or an emergency department visit. As telepsychiatry options continue to grow, making this delivery mode available to rural populations have a positive impact on mental health outcomes in the United States.