摘要：Providing access to mental health services for care and treatment is of critical importance in many rural communities. Recent recommendations for addressing this need include utilizing telemedicine at a community level in order to expand access to telepsychiatry services for the purposes of assessment, treatment, and medication monitoring. The Caring Connections Individualized Education Program (IEP) Enhancement Program was originated to build telehealth infrastructure in a rural Illinois special education district and bring a child psychiatrist into the IEP process via video conferencing. Participants consisted of special education teachers and other project staff, who provided qualitative and quantitative evaluation data derived from interview, focus group, and survey methods. The IEP Enhancement Program led to slightly higher team member satisfaction than the prior individualized education program, and students of the IEP Enhancement Program demonstrated slightly fewer behavioral problems, as perceived by school staff. Participants also cite the support from the participating psychiatrist as a key to the program’s success. Recommendations for future implementations of telepsychiatry programs in rural schools and communities are discussed.
