Delivering Collaborative Care in Rural Settings: Integrating Remote Teleconsultation and Local Supervision in Rural Nepal

Psychiatr Serv. 2019 Jan 1;70(1):78-81. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201800273. Epub 2018 Sep 17.

Abstract

The collaborative care model can deliver high-quality mental health care. In rural regions, clinical supervision is conducted remotely rather than in person. The authors implemented a remote teleconsultation model in rural Nepal, where the consulting psychiatrist is over 30 hours away. This column describes strategies for several challenges: poor mental health competencies and high turnover among primary care providers; need for urgent consultations; psychiatrist discomfort with lack of direct patient contact; unreliable electricity, technological tools, documentation, and delivery of treatment recommendations; on-site clinicians' low motivation to accept psychiatrist recommendations; and mismatch between the psychiatrist's recommendations and the site's capacity to implement them.

Keywords: Computer technology; Foreign psychiatry; Interdisciplinary issues; Service delivery systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Attitude of Health Personnel
  • Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / organization & administration*
  • Health Personnel / organization & administration
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / therapy
  • Mental Health Services / organization & administration*
  • Nepal
  • Psychiatry / organization & administration
  • Remote Consultation*
  • Rural Health
  • Rural Health Services / organization & administration*