Weiser Memorial Hospital receives grant to support mental health needs via telehealth

“Any time you can get a grant from professional people that want to come and help your community, it doesn’t cost your community anything and it adds a wonderful service, I think everyone wins,” said Doctor Evan Lee.
 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded $1.2 million to Weiser Memorial Hospital to support telehealth services in the hospital emergency department. Funding will support the implementation of 24-hour consultation services for high risk behavioral health patients via telehealth.
 The director of the Weiser Memorial Hospital’s emergency department since 2014, Dr. Lee said that he is looking forward to implementing the telehealth technology into the emergency department and said access to a mental health professional will greatly benefit the Weiser community.
 While mental health needs in urban areas may appear more common due to denser populations, the need is just as prevalent in a more rural community like Weiser, said Lee. When approaching the treatment for a patient admitted due to mental health, the overall goal of the emergency department is to prevent a crisis.
 “I think we all struggle trying to get the best care for these patients because there’s really no specialty resource for them,” said Lee.
 Any chance to help patients improve their quality of life is an asset for the overall community, said Lee. By utilizing telehealth technology, patients will be able to stay within the community rather than traveling outside of the vicinity. The technology also provides another resource for the emergency department and its staff, as well as provide medicine management for patients. The technology can be accessed in several ways, and in the Weiser Memorial emergency department it will likely be similar to a zoom-call setup.
 “Mental health in the ED, the main goal is to prevent suicide and that’s kind of what we are trying to do,” said Lee. “You’re not going to ‘fix somebody’ of their major depression or their schizophrenia…what we don’t want those individuals to do is cycle down to a point where they’re going to do some harm to themselves or [others.]”
 Telehealth technology has been particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic and has proven itself useful in situations such as rural environments in which a specialist practice is more difficult to establish. The ability to communicate with a specialist periodically via telehealth allows patients to stay close to home while still receiving the care.
 “I think we all, as a community living in a rural area, need to understand that telehealth is going to be part of the medicine component of what we all have to do together,” said Lee.
 As of Friday, where the mental health professionals will be sourced is still to be determined while Lee and hospital CEO Steve Hale deliberate, however the two are leaning toward finding a professional in the Treasure Valley area. While family practitioners, social workers and nurses already employed work tirelessly to help patients with mental health struggles, the need for a mental health individual to assist others has been known and necessary for years, said Lee.
 “Health is not just physical health. It’s mental health, it’s spiritual health, so we need all three of those involved,” said Lee. “Access to a mental health professional will just take us to the next level of making the community an overall healthy environment.”