Department of Psychiatry, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA.
J Telemed Telecare. 2018 Jul;24(6):434-439. doi: 10.1177/1357633X17706035. Epub 2017 May 5.
Individuals with intellectual disability experience higher rates of mental illness when compared with the general population, and there is a lack of medical and mental health professionals in rural and under-served areas. With the increase in discharge of individuals from institutional settings back to their home communities into the least restrictive environments, there are more patients with complex needs being added to the schedules of physicians in the outpatient delivery care system. Patients with disabilities may not travel well or tolerate changes in routine so may not have access to psychiatry. Utilization of telepsychiatry is well suited to this specialized patient population because it allows a highly traumatized group to meet with a psychiatrist and other mental health professionals from a location of their choice. Ohio's Telepsychiatry Project for Intellectual Disability was initiated in 2012 to serve outlying communities with a lack of infrastructure and resources, to provide specialized mental health services to individuals with co-occurring mental illness and intellectual disability. After five years, over 900 patients with intellectual disability from 64 of Ohio's 88 counties receive specialized mental health treatment through this statewide grant-funded project.
与普通人群相比，智力残疾个体的精神疾病发病率更高，而农村和服务不足地区缺乏医学和精神卫生专业人员。随着越来越多的机构收容人员返回其所在社区，进入限制最少的环境，越来越多的具有复杂需求的患者被纳入门诊医疗服务系统的医生的日程安排中。残疾患者可能出行不便或无法忍受常规的改变，因此可能无法获得精神科治疗。远程精神病学的应用非常适合这一特殊患者群体，因为它使高度受创的患者能够在其选择的地点与精神科医生和其他心理健康专业人员会面。俄亥俄州的智力残疾远程精神病学项目于 2012 年启动，旨在为基础设施和资源匮乏的偏远社区提供专门的精神健康服务，为同时患有精神疾病和智力残疾的个体提供服务。五年后，该全州拨款资助项目已为俄亥俄州 88 个县中的 64 个县的 900 多名智力残疾患者提供了专门的精神健康治疗。
