Question 1

I need help.

Accepted Answer

If you are an administrator seeking services for your healthcare organization or facility, please contact us.

However, if you are a patient seeking services for yourself or your family/friend, Orbit Health cannot provide care directly to you. If this is a medical or mental health emergency, please call 911 or go to an emergency room immediately.

Immediate help

Get immediate help through MentalHealth.gov's Immediate Help page.
If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Staffed by trained crisis workers.
Are you a veteran in crisis? The Veterans Crisis Line is available 24/7 — by phone, text message, and online chat.

Learn more

Find out how to get help at MentalHealth.gov
Find a psychiatrist, and learn more about psychiatric topics, at the American Psychiatric Association
Learn how to find mental health help at Mental Health America

Question 2

How can Orbit Health serve community mental health?

Accepted Answer

Orbit Health is a beacon for underserved communities. We have extensive experience providing essential telepsychiatry services to community mental health programs such as county outpatient clinics, inpatient units, and crisis stabilization centers.

Our goal is to help provide essential psychiatric treatment to those in the community at risk for severe mental illness, homelessness, poverty, addiction, and incarceration. We deliver high quality and reliable patient care remotely, through state-of-the-art videoconferencing technology.

Our services help community clinics and hospital function more efficiently and effectively, reducing the burden of serious mental illness on society.

To learn more, contact Orbit Health today!

Question 3

Has research been done to prove telepsychiatry works? What’s the evidence base?

Accepted Answer

Yes, telepsychiatry is comparable to in-person visits. In fact, studies have shown that telepsychiatry is effective for diagnosing mental disorders across ages — children, adults, and the elderly — and across ethnicities. Across studies, telepsychiatry has shown to provide clinical outcomes equivalent to face-to-face visits. Plus, across studies, diagnoses, and demographics, patients generally achieve improved symptoms and improved quality of life.

In fact, telepsychiatry has advantages over in-person care. Video visits increase access to a psychiatric practitioner, and can assist with collaborative care. Even those in rural communities and remote areas of the world — in other words, geographies with sparse populations — can access specialty care with the help of telepsychiatry.

Telepsychiatry is cost-effective. A study limited to the cost of providing clinical service has shown 10% reduction in cost per patient, when telepsychiatry was used versus in-person care. In the majority of studies, telepsychiatry is more cost-effective.

And both patients and providers are satisfied with telepsychiatry video visits. Patients feel they get along with their provider

Sources:

Hubley, S., Lynch, S. B., Schneck, C., Thomas, M., & Shore, J. (2016). Review of key telemental health outcomes. World journal of psychiatry, 6(2), 269.
Hilty DM, Ferrer DC, Parish MB, et al. The Effectiveness of telemental health: A 2013 review. Telemed J E Health 2013;(19):444-454.
Janca, 2000. Telepsychiatry: an update on technology & implications. Curr Op Psych 13: 591-7.
O'Reilly R, Bishop J, Maddox K, Hutchinson L, Fisman M, Takhar J. Is telepsychiatry equivalent to face-to-face psychiatry? Results from a randomized controlled equivalence trial. Psychiatr Serv. 2007;58(6):836-43.
Bashshur, R. L., Shannon, G. W., Bashshur, N., & Yellowlees, P. M. (2016). The empirical evidence for telemedicine interventions in mental disorders. Telemedicine and e-Health, 22(2), 87-113.

Question 4

Can medication be prescribed via telepsychiatry?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our licensed psychiatrists are able to prescribe medications for patients they diagnose and treat remotely. Our providers will write and sign the prescriptions, which can then be transmitted to the clinic for local fulfilment.

Question 5

Has research been done to prove child & adolescent telepsychiatry works? What’s the evidence base?

Accepted Answer

Yes, children, adolescents, and families can benefit from telepsychiatry. In a variety of mental health conditions such as ADHD, autism, and OCD, studies have indicated that video visits are useful in accessing psychiatric specialists and improving symptoms.

In attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) studies with telepsychiatry, for instance, improvement in hyperactivity and combined ADHD has been shown in hundreds of children in randomized clinical trials, combining video visits with child psychiatrists along with caregiver behavior, versus treatment with their primary care providers augmented with telepsychiatry consults. In autism, clinicians can use telepsychiatry videoconferencing for diagnosis & assessment. And, in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), video visits reduced symptoms versus a waitlist control in a randomized clinical trial.

We additionally see video visits used to give behavioral parent training, with live therapists, showing treatment response and improvements in children ’s symptoms as well as easing of parental burden. Video visits can also help with parental coaching for children with autism, to help conduct home assessments, and for communication coaching.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry provides expert guidance on how to deliver psychiatric services to this population, including optimizing clinical visits. This guidance is assembled by experts on the Committee on Telepsychiatry and the Committee on Quality Issues.

Sources:

Myers K, vander Stoep A, Zhou C, et al. Effectiveness of a telehealth service delivery model for treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: results of a community-based randomized controlled trial. J Amer Asso Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2015;54(4):263-74.
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee on Telepsychiatry and the Committee on Quality Issues. Clinical Update for Telepsychiatry with Children and Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2017;56(10):875–893.
Comer JS, Furr JM, Miguel E, Cooper-Vince CE, Carpenter AL, …Myers KM & Chase R. Remotely delivering real-time parent training to the home: An initial randomized trial of Internet-delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (I-PCIT). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 2017; 85 (9): 909–917.
Lee JF, Schieltz KM, Suess AN, Wacker DP, Romani PW, Lindgren SD, Kopelman TG, Padilla Dalmau YC. Guidelines for developing telehealth services and troubleshooting problems with telehealth technology when coaching parents to conduct functional analyses and functional communication training in their homes. Behavior Analysis Practice DOI 10.1007/s40617-014-0031-2; Published online 27 November 2014.
Myers K and Roth DE. Telepsychiatry with children and adolescents. In: Martin A, Volkmar FR, and Bloch MH (Eds), Lewis's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Comprehensive Textbook, 5th Edition. Wolters Kluwer, Philadelphia, 2018; Chapter 6.3.5.
Reese RM, Jamison R, Wendland M, Fleming K, Braun MJ, Schuttler JO et al. Evaluating interactive videoconferencing for assessing symptoms of autism. Telemedicine and J E Health. 2013;19(9):671-677.
Storch EA, Caporino NE, Morgan JR, Lewin AB, Rojas A, Brauer L et al. Preliminary investigation of web-camera delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatry Research. 2011;189(3):407-412.
Vander Stoep A, McCarty C, Zhou C, Rockhill CM, Schoenfelder E, Myers K. The Children’s Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Telemental Health Treatment Study: caregivers’ outcomes. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 2016; 45(1):27-43.

Question 6

Does working for the federal government allow you to see patients via telepsychiatry, wherever you are?

Accepted Answer

Working for the federal government does not necessarily allow you to see patients via telepsychiatry, wherever you are. While there are no absolute contraindications to patients being assessed or treated using telemental health, you have to check with your supervisor — and any applicable administrative rules and trainings — for these rules.

Ask your supervisor about federal telework agreements, contingency plans for persons who appear in-person or who are unable to connect by video, and whether support staff are available to guide your patient in case of an outage.

Furthermore, telemedicine requires you to know which state a patient is located. You would need to follow that state's licensing laws and regulations. Usually, this means you must have a license to practice in that patient's state, have malpractice cover your practice in that state. Some states allow for a single state license to cover multiple states — the Interstate Licensure Compact, for instance — but not all states participate in this.

Resources, such as the American Medical Association Telehealth quick guide, can help you determine which laws apply.

Question 7

What is #endthecycle? Why provide mental health care throughout the legal system?

Accepted Answer

The sad reality is that jails and prisons have become the new asylums. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, 383,000 individuals with severe psychiatric disease were behind bars in the United States in 2014- roughly equivalent to the size of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. It is tragic and unacceptable that many people who deserve mental health treatment are instead thrown behind bars where they are exposed to trauma and further deterioration.

At Orbit Health, we are determined to disrupt the cycle of mass incarceration of the mentally ill by inserting telepsychiatry at every stage of the criminal justice system. This ensures that people who are vulnerable to incarceration have access to the right care at the right time.

Why is it important to provide mental health care throughout the legal system? People who are in the active phase of a mental illness (psychotic, depressed, manic, etc), are not able to function appropriately within the legal system and can disrupt the courts and correctional facilities. By contrast, when people are adequately treated for the mental illness, they are better able to navigate within the legal system, care for themselves, and stay out of trouble.

Perhaps most importantly, we have an ethical obligation to take care of our fellow man to reduce suffering and protect our communities. Orbit Health is there to help people get the care they need, whether it is at the time of arrest, in court, behind bars, or on parole.

At Orbit Health, we believe that a healthier person means a healthier society. Its time to #endthecycle of mass incarceration of the mentally ill.

Question 8

Why choose Orbit Health for your correctional facility?

Accepted Answer

Orbit Health is different from other telepsychiatry companies because Orbit Health's primary mission is to end the cycle of mass incarceration of the mentally ill. Led by the world’s leading experts and pioneers in correctional telepsychiatry, Orbit Health has specialized knowledge, skill, and experience to provide the finest quality of services to jails, prisons, juvenile detention centers, and forensic hospitals.

Many correctional settings struggle to meet State and Federal mental health care mandates, often due to limited psychiatric resources. Patients behind bars struggle to achieve psychiatric stability, making it difficult to function in these settings and leading to worsening outcomes, such as rules violations and enhanced sentences. Time and again, Orbit Health has improved access to care while reduced patient backlogs, thereby helping facilities function safely and efficiently.

Orbit Health's goal is to ensure patients attain stability before, during, and after incarceration in order to achieve success in any setting. Mental and emotional stability reduces the rate of recidivism, and nobody in the world does this better than Orbit Health.

If you are looking for correctional telepsychiatry services for your facility, or you are a provider looking for a job opportunity in corrections, contact Orbit Health today!

Question 9

Does remote group therapy allow the participants to develop a bond?  How important is that?

Accepted Answer

One of the main purposes of group therapy is to allow patients to learn from, and be supported by, other members of the group. This happens more easily if there is a sense of solidarity or connection amongst the group members.

Can you achieve that same level of connection with remote groups? Yes: Ensure that all members of the group can see and hear each other clearly at all times. Also, encourage and give space for all members to actively participate in the discussion so that no one is left behind.

Question 10

What services does Orbit Health offer?

Accepted Answer

Orbit Health offers all of the key psychiatric services to all 50 states.

Weekday, weekend, on-call, overnight, flexible, subspecialty care, consultation, remote medical director.

Community outpatient & inpatient services: Orbit Health provides telepsychiatrists to your ED via high quality videoconferencing technology. To the patient, this is no different than having an onsite psychiatrist. The doctor reviews the medical record, meets with the patient, and submits the clinical documentation directly into your electronic medical record. Read More
Addiction Treatment Centers: Telepsychiatrists are made available to clinics and residential treatment programs. Face-to-face appointments with patients happen virtually, and will look and feel almost identical to in-person appointments. The telepsychiatrists are also available to consult with other members of the treatment team via videoconference. Read More
Emergency Departments & Crisis Centers: Orbit Health provides telepsychiatrists to your ED via high quality videoconferencing technology. To the patient, this is no different than having an onsite psychiatrist. The doctor reviews the medical record, meets with the patient, and submits the clinical documentation directly into your electronic medical record. Read More
Skilled Nursing Facilities & Assisted Living: Orbit Health provides telepsychiatrists at the patient’s bedside via high quality videoconferencing technology. From the patient’s perspective, there is little difference between an appointment with an onsite psychiatrist and that of a telepsychiatrist. The doctor reviews the medical record, meets with the patient, and submits the clinical documentation directly into the electronic medical record. Read More
Forensic Telepsychiatry Services: In many cases, forensic evaluations and testimony can be accomplished remotely, via videoconferencing. Forensic telepsychiatry makes sense, and it saves time and money. Attorneys and judges are increasingly accepting the concept of forensic telepsychiatry as a convenient and effective way to utilize expert testimony. Read More