Due to a shortage of psychiatric services in the area, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors has approved a telepsychiatry program for county employees.
The program uses video-conferencing technology for individuals to meet virtually with a psychiatrist.
According to Alan Wooten, the Executive Director of Prince William County Community Services, the technology can be implemented to provide evaluations, diagnosis, treatment and medication management.
“Nationally and here in Virginia there is a shortage of available psychiatrists to meet demand, especially in specialty areas such as child and adolescent psychology. This is especially the case in more rural areas of the state but is also a significant challenge here in Northern Virginia due to our population size and competition for limited number of psychiatrists in the marketplace,” said Wooten.
The funding for the program was provided by state general funds and awarded to Prince William County by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), Wooten stated.
In order to get the program working, “HIPAA compliant, audio-visual connections [will be] established between our two main services sites in Woodbridge and Manassas, between these same two service sites and the three hospital Emergency Departments (Novant Prince William, Novant Haymarket and Sentara), and with individual psychiatrists who may be working off-site or in other areas of the state,” Wooten said.
The telepsychiatry program should be available for County staff use by this Spring.
