Telehealth in Libraries: Promoting Access to Telebehavioral Health through Community Partnership

The Important of Telebehavioral Health

Behavioral health has emerged as a telehealth champion – studies have shown that behavioral health care can be provided via telehealth without a significant change in the quality of care and with high levels of patient satisfaction. There are some types of telehealth where usage has rapidly declined since peaking during the early stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic, but usage of telebehavioral health has remained consistently high and shows no signs of dipping back to pre-pandemic level. It has become increasingly clear that telebehavioral health is here to stay – for a good reason.

Challenges of Rural Health and Telebehavioral Health

Telebehavioral has proven to be an effective way for patients to receive care that can help to alleviate barriers like provider shortages and lingering stigma around mental health care. However, it is not without challenges. One of these challenges is access for rural and geographically remote populations. Telehealth depends on internet access, which can be a challenge for rural populations in particular.

Broadband – high-speed internet access that is always on and faster than traditional dial-up internet connections– is essential to connecting with telehealth. Without it, potential patients can’t connect to telehealth services. In rural populations where providers are already sparse, this can exacerbate an existing problem. Thankfully, the federal government has increasingly recognized broadband as an essential service that should be treated as a utility in today’s society. Initiatives like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) have started to work towards covering the gaps and increasing access.

It will take time for real change to be made by these programs and projects. In the meantime, those in rural areas which require behavioral health services still struggle with the connectivity needed to seek telebehavioral health care. These and other challenges are why programs using community assets to connect patients with care are essential.

Telehealth in Libraries 

While rural communities struggle with broadband access, the public library is one place in most communities with consistent access to reliable internet. Because of this, there are a number of programs that exist to connect patients with care by partnering with public libraries. A few examples of these programs are below:

Because You Matter – Indiana University

The Because You Matter program is a free mental health service provided by the Indiana University School of Social Work that is delivered in partnership with Indiana’s public libraries for rural Indiana residents. The program covers six rural Indiana counties and has partnered with six different public libraries where patients are provided with a private and secure location to receive telebehavioral care that they might not have access to otherwise.

Earlier this year, we spoke to John Keesler, Ph.D., MSW, LMSW, and David Wilkerson, Ph.D., MSW, from the Because You Matter program on our podcast – listen here!

Telehealth in Libraries Needs Assessment – Indiana Rural Health Association

The Indiana Rural Health Association (IRHA), the University of Virginia and the University of Southern Indiana collaborated to create a Telehealth in Library Needs Assessment (TILNA). The TILNA evaluates the library’s needs and assists to determine the feasibility for telehealth programming in a rural library setting through 3 separate surveys. The 3 surveys will assess the libraries, providers, and community members by identifying what type of equipment and space is available in the library, which providers are interested and able to deliver telehealth services, and which type of telehealth program is needed in the community.

The Future of Telehealth in Libraries

While we hope there will be more accessible broadband in the future, many rural residents will likely have a long road before getting connected. Because of this, community programs like telehealth in libraries will remain essential when promoting access to mental health care. This is by no means a complete summary of all the telehealth in library programs available in the UMTRC region. If you know of a telehealth in libraries program you’d like to share with the UMTRC audience, please contact us and let us know!

 Read More:

• Telehealth and Libraries; a Perfect Pairing – Arizona Telemedicine Program
• Telehealth 101: What libraries need to know – National Library of Medicine
• What is Broadband? – Upper Midwest Telehealth Resource Center
• A Virtual View: The Importance of Connectivity with Ali Levorsen – Upper Midwest Telehealth Resource Center