Tele-Psychiatry

Tele-Psychiatry

The past few years have seen enormous changes in the healthcare field, especially when it comes to providing mental health services. An exciting new method for doing this has emerged: Telepsychiatry. This still-pretty-new approach connects patients in need of psychiatric help with providers who can deliver that help—not in person but via technology. It's mostly done by video-calling these days, but other methods are possible. A place that really appears to have embraced this TeleHealth concept is *Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care*, which is located in Lahore, Pakistan.

At Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, we use the term "telepsychiatry" to refer to the application of telemedicine in the field of psychiatry. Telepsychiatry is the delivery of psychiatric care via videoconferencing. In our rural setting, we feel people can benefit significantly from this kind of psychiatry. Although we are not delivering our services face-to-face as in the old way of seeing a doctor, we are still accomplishing what we did before—seeing, assessing, and diagnosing patients and providing them with the same level of treatment we would provide if they were right in front of us.

Telepsychiatry offers one of the greatest benefits of all: the freedom of choice. Patients can pick and choose a psychiatrist with the qualities and expertise that they need and want. They are not limited to only those providers who practice within their immediate vicinity. Even within the realm of telepsychiatry, where a patient might see a psychiatrist in a different area, not all telepsychiatrists are equal. Some specialize in certain conditions. There is no "one size fits all." Patients have the right to choose a psychiatrist with whom they feel they will have a strong doctor-patient alliance. And these patient choices are being made in an era of unprecedented telepsychiatry accessibility.

For people living in isolated or underserved regions, telepsychiatry offers a distinct advantage. It lets us bring limited but desperately needed mental health services to areas that otherwise would have none. This is a step towards serving the basic mental health needs of our most restricted communities, letting us use technology to bridge a gap that previously could not be crossed—the gap between a community and the specialists essential for that community's better mental health.

In our rapidly moving society, the minutes and moments of time are highly valued. Yet when it comes to our mental well-being, few of us are willing to cede even a single second. And we all know why that is: a healthy mind is essential to our better functioning — indeed, to our functioning at all. Telepsychiatry makes it possible for individuals to see a mental health professional without having to step away from work and while avoiding the chaos (and sometimes danger) of rush-hour traffic.

For a lot of people, the idea of talking about mental health issues is a tough sell. And why go through that when there are so many simpler ways of achieving essentially the same end result? Of course, there's the enigma of "thanks for the memories" on a human level. But this is also, arguably, a performance issue, as occupational health and safety people would put it. More on that later. And what makes telepsychiatry better, if at all, than engaging in this pasty sort of performance in the back booth of a diner?

Ongoing support and follow-up care are extremely important for individuals trying to manage long-term mental health conditions. Regular check-ins with a psychiatrist can help you ensure that you're still on the right path, that your treatment plan is working (or being modified in useful ways), and that you're being encouraged to do the difficult but necessary work that Vault insists is Essential (but which would be equally true if we were as a society to insist that mental health management is just plain essential). . . which it is.

At Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, Lahore, Pakistan, we know that treating mental health conditions effectively requires a good therapeutic relationship between the psychiatrist /psychologist and the patient. In our telepsychiatry program, we place utmost importance on truly hearing our patients; we listen to them and try to grasp their individual experiences. We work with our patients as partners in their care, devising collaborative treatment plans that attend to what brought them to us and that aim to relieve their particular symptoms of psychic distress.

At the heart of our practice is empathy. We hold the conviction that every person we serve has the right to be not only heard but also understood. In our telepsychiatry sessions, our psychiatrist /psychologist makes it a point to really listen not just to the words being said but to the meaning behind them. The psychiatrist / psychologist and patient work together to create a virtual "room" in which the patient can comfortably and safely express their innermost thoughts and feelings.

Clear and compassionate communication is the foundation of successful psychiatric care, and it is our online psychiatrists who lay this vital groundwork for empowering treatment. We ensure that the patients we serve understand their options and feel involved in the decision-making process. We work with patients to share "in-sights" and even "life-sight" preferences that help us know better how to serve them. Our leads, our caregivers, way-find with our patients.

An often-held misunderstanding of telepsychiatry is that it may jeopardize the precision of diagnoses. However, at Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, Lahore, Pakistan, we use the latest technology and proven practices to guarantee our online assessments are as exhaustive and exacting as our in-person evaluations. Our psychiatrists / Psychologists are just as capable of rendering the virtual tool set useful for their "part" of the psychiatric "work-up" as they would be in an office. No "part" of our "work-up" is more or less crucial to our arriving at an accurate diagnosis.

Connections Lahore offers broad telepsychiatry services. They do comprehensive evaluations, which allow them to get a clear picture of a patient’s mental health history, their symptoms, and what they want in terms of treatment. And then they do follow-up sessions. The individual is the focus here, and that's really how it should be in terms of mental health treatment. They don't just do those comprehensive evaluations and set the patient adrift until the next crisis; they provide ongoing support.

Using technology effectively is key to the success of telepsychiatry, and at Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, we harness the power of secure virtual platforms to reach our patients. These platforms are not only secure but very user-friendly, allowing patients to access their appointments through various electronics with no special skills required. "Seamless" would be the term to describe the connection and continuation of care—until, of course, the return to in-person visits is deemed safe. But even then, the opportunity to see a patient digitally solves many access-to-care issues for those who live far away from their providers.

Although telepsychiatry has a lot of benefits, we also need to recognize that some people may run into obstacles when they try to reach out for online psychiatric help. Not everyone has the same level of access to tech or to the internet, and that could certainly have a part in telepsychiatry being underutilized. At Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, we offer a lot of support to our patients in helping them understand what kind of equipment they need and how to go about using it. We want to ensure that our patients are both capable and confident in using the devices and programs necessary to "meet" with their psychiatrist online.

The stigma attached to mental health continues to deter people from seeking necessary care. Even among those who recognize a need, societal views of mental illness can make individuals hesitant to pursue in-person or digital therapies. At Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, we work hard to create an inclusive, welcoming, and diverse environment. We aim to make our community spaces--real and virtual--places where conversations about mental health are as commonplace as discussions about physical health.

Telepsychiatry is poised to be a key component in the future of mental health care. The World Health Organization estimates that close to half a billion people suffer from mental disorders, and only a small fraction of them receive adequate treatment. An even larger portion of the population has their lives affected by mental health issues. Using the virtual space to provide care is happening now and will continue expanding, not only as a mechanism of providing much-needed access to care but also as a critical part of the overall response to the mental health care crisis. At Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care, we remain committed to leading the charge in telepsychiatry.

Telepsychiatry occupies an increasingly important spot within the mental health ecosystem, both now and into the future. This is due to its many benefits, which can be likened in some ways to those of the "hub and spoke" model of care in which a psychiatrist at the hub serves multiple patients at the fringes with the aid of a telehealth platform. But telepsychiatry is more than just a way to bring care to underserved individuals. It is a means of leveraging technology—often augmented by artificial intelligence—that holds the promise of making tomorrow's mental health diagnoses and treatments even more accurate and personalized.

We believe that as telepsychiatry is more commonly accepted, access to mental health care will increase, especially in places that have always had fewer resources. Telemedicine, in general, has helped people in rural areas get the care they need, so it is logical to expect "tele" psychiatry to do the same. Still, even in urban areas, many people could benefit from seeing a psychiatrist / psychologist via our current technological means, and not just because of a lack of available doctors or because those doctors are physically far away.

Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care will remain steadfast in ensuring care for our patients is always centered on them. We still prioritize the needs and wants of our patients. We still hold the lives and voices of our patients as the most important in determining the right course for our engaging, as their “medicine,” for the next year, half year, or day.

Telepsychiatry is revolutionizing the provision of mental health care. Now, because of our advanced digital age, it is possible for nearly anyone to access face-to-face high-quality psychiatric services—wherever they may happen to reside—easily and conveniently, thanks to telecommunication technologies. Here at Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care in Lahore, Pakistan, we are dedicated to the cause of making mental health care accessible, that is, to anyone, anywhere who may need it. We use telepsychiatry as our principal means of reaching out to people not only across the country but also to the far corners of the globe.

In today's world, mental health is not just acknowledged but is appreciated as a vital part of optimal wellness. Telepsychiatry, then, is a concept that stands tall, and in many ways, it leads the march toward ensuring that individuals have accessible means of seeking necessary, life-changing support. If you or anyone you know is even slightly inclined to consider telepsychiatry as a potential means to an end, we at Connections Comprehensive Psychiatric Care invite you to glean from our offering and take a step—really the first step—toward a future full of more hope and health.