CMU’s program to strengthen tele-psychiatry services, focused on reducing youth suicide attempts and increasing access to mental health services, infuses critically needed tele-psychiatry outreach for enhanced mental health care in rural communities. It is targeted for implementation concurrent to CMU Psychiatry Clinics positioned to support providers in rural Central and Northern Michigan. An outreach team will recruit/engage rural provider practices and mental health service providers. The goal is 15-20 new participant practices every 4 months, totaling 50 practices during the grant award period. Funding permanently equips practices with telehealth equipment along with 2-year subscriptions for platform access. Participant providers receive technical assistance, training resources & portal access to tools, and referral linkages to psychiatric outpatient services at CMU’s Clinic. This project will provide tele-psychiatry outreach to enhance providers’ capacity and increase access to specialty services based out of CMU Psychiatry Clinics in Mount Pleasant and Saginaw Michigan. The Clinics’ team of resident physicians, fellows and faculty will work with service providers, including primary care, rural Federally Qualified Health Centers, and Community Mental Health services. The project will bolster referral networks, provide consultative services to rural physicians, expedite care, and offer outpatient psychiatric and other mental health services for youth and adults at risk for mental health issues, suicide, crisis intervention, and care transitions. CMU will collaborate with local providers to deploy technical assistance, telehealth equipment, tools, and tele-psychiatric outpatient services. CMU’s Psychiatry Residency and Child & Adolescent Fellowship program growth reflects the medical school’s commitment to stem Michigan’s psychiatric physician shortage and deliver high-quality care to underserved areas. Fifty percent of recent
graduates have chosen to stay and practice in Michigan. The program includes 12 faculty psychiatrists. In 2019, CMU Medical Education Partners expanded its psychiatry residency program through the MIDOCs initiative and continues to offer six new psychiatry residency positions yearly. Through this funding, Tele-psychiatry clinics will be established as outreach hubs in Saginaw and Mount Pleasant, staffed by the CMU psychiatry residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. The CMU College of Medicine and the CMU Interdisciplinary Center for Community Health & Wellness are partners in the MDHHS Preventing Suicide in Michigan Men (PRiSMM) initiative, a five-year $4.35M grant funded by CDC aimed to reduce the number of deaths and attempts among men ages 25 and older by at least 10 percent. CMU has built and is now disseminating a Suicide Prevention Telehealth Toolkit (med.cmich.edu/prismmtoolkit) for behavioral health and primary care providers. This resource will be available along with training support to the 50 providers participating in the CMU CORPS initiative. CMU will infuse critically needed tele-psychiatry outreach for mental health care in rural communities and tools for providers in Mid-Central and Northern Michigan.