Mental health group gives timeline for telehealth units to schools

The newly formed Northwest Cooperative Mental Health Board has announced the timeline for the roll-out of the mobile telehealth units to be placed in every school district in Nodaway, Worth, Gentry and Holt Counties.

The cost per unit for technology equipment is $2,056.07 which is less than originally estimated. The dollars to purchase the units were garnered from the four participating county commissions.

The training and implementation of the units in each of the school buildings will be made in three phases. This will aid in the complexities of legal, liability, consent to treat, consent to telehealth, parental notifications intricacies that this effort requires. The hope of the board is to help break barriers for families when it comes to transportation, time away from work and students’ time away from school to make necessary healthcare appointments. It’s also a huge improvement for the school leaders to ensure students will receive the counseling services they need. The telehealth route is a new avenue of treatment that may not work for every patient, but will break down barriers of treatment for many others.

Phase one will begin in the late summer and will be Worth County, Stanberry, Mound City, Maryville Middle School, South Nodaway and Northeast Nodaway schools.
Phase two should begin mid-January, 2024 and the final phase to be mid-March, 2024.

“This phased approach allows us to work through any roadblocks on a smaller scale,” says Megan Jennings, director of development for the St. Francis Foundation. “The phase one schools were chosen based on data showing current utilization of counseling services by school. We hope to have all schools in the four-county area that choose to participate up and going by March of 2024.”

The phase one schools were invited to the Maryville Mosaic campus to discuss what telehealth counseling would look like, including processes around consent, privacy, scheduling and administration.

“It was great to have our therapists together in the same room with several area school districts in collaboration to expand access to care and reduce barriers for area students and family,” said Kelsi Meyer, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville community relations manager.

The parameters for telehealth services are:
• Available for established patients only.
• Counselors must agree that telehealth works well with a child’s treatment plan.
• Child/parent/guardian must agree to telehealth counseling as part of their treatment plan.

Any new patients needing to establish care will flow to Kristine Kramer, APRN, whose practice focuses on pediatric mental health for ages four to 21. Kramer joined the Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville Behavioral Health Clinic in January and will work to diagnose and treat pediatric patients with mental health diagnoses. Her practice will include screening tools, assessments and developing treatment plans, which may include therapy and medications.