House calls: Telepsychiatry and connecting with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities
International Journal of Development Research
House calls: Telepsychiatry and connecting with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities
Received 08th November, 2017; Received in revised form; 23rd December, 2017; Accepted 14th January, 2018; Published online 28th February, 2018.
Copyright © 2018, Brian Merrill et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Individuals with intellectual disability experience high rates of mental illness, and there is a lack of medical and mental health professionals in rural and underserved areas. Since patients with disabilities may not travel well or tolerate changes in routine, utilization of telepsychiatry is well suited to this patient population because it allows a highly traumatized group to meet with a psychiatrist from a location of their choice. Ohio’s Telepsychiatry Project for Intellectual Disability provides specialized mental health services to rural communities. After five years, over 1,000 patients with intellectual disability from 65 counties are engaged in the project.
