Expanding Access to Behavioral Healthcare with Telehealth

A new AHA Market Scan Trailblazers report, sponsored by Iris Telehealth, explores how virtual care delivery or telehealth (an umbrella term describing all aspects of virtual care) expands access to behavioral healthcare. The U.S. faces an ongoing behavioral health crisis, according to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis at the Health Resources and Services Administration. In 2024, an estimated 23% of all adults in the U.S. had a mental illness. Yet, nearly half of those individuals didn't receive treatment.

Workforce shortages on the healthcare provider side and the stigma that continues to surround mental health conditions on the patient side often prevent people who need behavioral health services from accessing them. Hospitals and health systems seeking to address these challenges are increasingly turning to telehealth.

Meeting Growing Demand for Behavioral Healthcare Through Telehealth

With technology that allows patients and clinicians to connect without in-person visits, individuals in rural areas can receive treatment without traveling long distances or worrying that neighbors will see them entering a psychiatrist’s office. On the provider side, virtual care delivery helps health systems more easily serve patients in rural and remote areas and provides clinicians with greater insight into patients’ home environments. Remote work options also bolster recruiting and retention.

Eliminating Barriers to Access with Virtual Care: Real-World Examples

This report presents two case studies showing how two AHA members implemented telehealth to meet growing demand for behavioral health services. Emplify Health Behavioral Health in Green Bay, Wisconsin, added virtual behavioral healthcare in response to escalating community needs during the pandemic. As a result, wait times between referrals and appointments have decreased significantly.

Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health has also seen growing demand for behavioral healthcare services in recent years. However, workforce shortfalls and the distance between providers and patients have created barriers to access in the health system’s Mountain Region, which includes Colorado, Utah and western Kansas.

To overcome those obstacles, CommonSpirit’s Mountain Region team has partnered with local high schools and colleges to create talent pipelines and has collaborated with a behavioral health telehealth organization to provide inpatient psychiatric consultation and medication management services. DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT »