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Fahad Sultan

Regis College

NU 643 – Advanced Psychopharmacology

Telepsychiatry in NYS

Professor Cetelo

Fall 2022
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Telepsychiatry in the State of New York

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way we deliver healthcare. New York State was

known as the epicenter of the coronavirus during the height of pandemic and the coronavirus

crisis shocked the state with its crippling effects. There are various reasons that led to NYS being

one of the most intensively impacted states, including overcrowded cities, massive residents, and

a central travel spot among the U.S. and the rest of the world. The occurrences of new COVID-

19 episodes reduced in New York, because it seems to be prudently managed and regulated in

reference of the NYS's active leadership and assembling prior periods for people to stay at home

orders (Hyder & Razzak, 2020).

There were some restrictions that began to be lifted in New York on May of 2020. This

allowed businesses to begin operations and re-opening. After that it was informed that New York

was seeing rises in the COVID-19 cases, especially starting in July. Currently, New York and its

adjacent areas were known to have elevated transmission and bouts of COVID-19. Beginning in

July of 2020, there was a daily mean of about 8,000 novel reported COVID-19 cases (Hyder &

Razzak, 2020). This unexpected flow or rise of new cases signifies a very similar situation of

other overly populated states such as Texas, California, etc.

Similarly, like countless American citizens, New Yorkers started to become exhausted

and overwhelmed with facing the endless restrictions on their daily activities following months

of execution of the social distancing practices. Many individuals, especially the younger

populations initiated to restart engaging in their daily activities such as attending bars, clubs,

restaurants, and gymnasiums. Moreover, the emergence of new COVID-19 cases in NY is

contributed by people not engaging in social distancing practices such as not wearing masks in

public and failing to quarantine appropriately.

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As stated by Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, telehealth is indicated as the

operation of health information shifted and exchanged from one site to another site using

collaborative communication devices that includes audio, video features which enables

interactive collaboration among the clinician and client at remote locations to address the client’s

health and well-being. Telemedicine is the term often preferred in order to create a distinction

from telehealth (Monaghesh & Hajizadeh, 2020).

Like other states in the nation, any medical professional in New York is mandated to take

a license from the NY Medical Board before they can provide services or medical care treatment

to clients living in NY. Based on the Telehealth Advancement Act, which was published in 2011,

telehealth is defined as offering medical care or services, using medical info and interactive

communicative devices that can facilitate in the evaluation, assessing, diagnosis, medication

management, providing the appropriate education to the clients, and medical care of a client,

while the doctor or healthcare provider is in remote location from the client (Naik et al., 2020).

One of the requirements and policies in place in NY is there needs to be a solid and

established agreement among the client and their respective physician or clinician in order for

telemedicine to take place. There are no mandates for an indivudal initial assessment in NY.

Creating a durable relationship or agreement among a client and their healthcare provider can be

attained with the usage of telemedicine, which integrates a genuine video meeting. Additionally,

a medical care treatment plan is not allowed to manage or limit the hospitals or other clinical

settings where medical care services need to be delivered.

Article About Telepsychiatry

Freeman et al. (2020) studied the influence and conclusion of utilizing telepsychiatry in

the emergency department. This scholarly study inspected the occurrence and concrete usage of
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telepsychiatry in the nation’s emergency department. In the year of 2016, approximately 20% of

emergency departments received and used telepsychiatry services (Naik et al., 2020). Moreover,

many of the ED that obtains telepsychiatry services failed to provide record of emergency mental

health services. The ultimate conclusion has been endorsed that it is vital to use telepsychiatry

services in order to fill a dire need. Secondary investigations or inquiries are allowed to study

apparent impairments in applying and employing telepsychiatry services in EDs with regards to

the lack of emergency mental health interventions.

Future Role in Telepsychiatry

I can anticipate being part of and utilizing telepsychiatry services in my future practice.

The modality of offering health care and services to clients has dramatically transformed in a

blink of an eye with the emergence of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. One of the ideal

ways of offering care to clients is through the usage of telehealth. Unexpectedly, many

healthcare professionals such as nurses, social workers, therapists were expected to use this

technology without receiving inclusive or thorough training on how to adequately use it,

particularly in regard to telehealth. Much of evidence-based articles have suggested that

telehealth is here to stay. It is now an ideal time period for medical clinicians to contemplate

telehealth’s greatest practices and for instructors to ensure that new graduate practitioners or

clinicians are prepared to fulfill their position and obligation in providing high quality telehealth

services to clients (Freeman et al., 2020).

Conclusion

Many people are feeling nervous and are mentally exhausted due to the constant

distressing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in NY and throughout the nation. It is not

surprising to know that people are experiencing severe levels of anxiety during these uncertain
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times. Many people have reported an exacerbation of their overall mental health. Now more than

ever, it is crucial and vital to exercise crisis-friendly care for not only for our clients, but also

among ourselves, given how we felt the effects of social distancing and quarantine protocols for

extended periods of time. Some activities that are deemed safe and should be taken into account

are things such as reading a novel, going for a walk outdoors, reaching out and speaking to a

friend or family member. Mental health services and professionals continue to be in desperate

need as the pandemic lingers on. It is essential to maintain sound and adequate mental health

hygiene and practices, given the continuous coronavirus crisis.

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References

Freeman, R. E., Boggs, K. M., Zachrison, K. S., Freid, R. D., Sullivan, A. F., Espinola, J. A., &

Camargo, C. A. (2020). national study of telepsychiatry use in U.S. emergency

departments. Psychiatric Services, 71(6), 540–546.

https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201900237

Hyder, M. A., & Razzak, J. (2020). Telemedicine in the United States: An introduction for

students and residents. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(11).

https://doi.org/10.2196/20839

Monaghesh, E., & Hajizadeh, A. (2020). The role of telehealth during COVID-19 outbreak: a

systematic review based on current evidence. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1–9.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09301-4

Naik, S. S., Manjunatha, N., Kumar, C. N., Math, S. B., & Moirangthem, S. (2020). Patient’s

perspectives of telepsychiatry: The past, present and future. Indian Journal of

Psychological Medicine, 42(5_suppl), 102S107S.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620963341