Telemental Health Training, Team Building, and Workforce Development in Cultural Context: The Hawaii Experience.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the University of Hawaii (UH) child and adolescent psychiatry telemental health (TMH) program is to train child and adolescent psychiatry fellows to provide behavioral health services for the children of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands in the cultural context of their rural communities using interactive videoteleconferencing (IVTC). The training experience balances learning objectives with community service. Learning objectives include: Understanding mental health disparities in rural communities, leveraging community resources in ongoing treatment, providing culturally effective care, and improving health care access and delivery through TMH service research and evaluation. METHODS: We describe the UH experience. Several UH faculty are experienced with IVTC technology. They are triple-board trained, are recognized for their research in program evaluation and mental health disparities, and are committed to serving Hawaii's rural communities. We demonstrate the role of TMH in linking children and their families living in rural communities with multiple mental health treatment providers. The service-learning curriculum and a unique collaboration with Mayo Clinic provide the opportunity to examine the role of TMH in global service, and training, education, and research. RESULTS: TMH provides direct services to patients and consultation on Hawaii Island and Maui County. The collaboration with the Mayo Clinic brings further consultation in complex diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, and cross-cultural psychiatry. A curriculum provides trainees experience with IVTC with the goal of potential recruitment to underserved rural communities. The TMH program at UH is unique in its team building and workforce development by joining multiple entities through IVTC and translating expertise from the Mayo Clinic to rural communities, and strengthening collaboration with local child and adolescent psychiatrists, and primary care and other mental health providers. CONCLUSIONS: The UH psychiatry program is a model program to develop an expert mental health workforce in cultural context for children living in rural communities.

The Mokihana Program: The effectiveness of an integrated department of education and department of health school-based behavioral health approach.

As a result of difficulties with access to care and resulting low levels of service utilization, the mental health problems of children often go undiagnosed and untreated. One of the most promising approaches to increasing access to care is the delivery of mental health services in school settings, where almost all of the children in a community can be accessed. However, as a result of competing needs, cultures, and objectives, integrating mental health services into schools can be challenging. In the wake of a devastating hurricane in 1992 and efforts to identify and treat children with posttraumatic stress, many of these barriers were overcome on the island of Kauai, Hawaii and led to the development of the Mokihana Program, an integrated Department of Education and Hawaii Department of Health initiative for providing school-based behavioral health services. This study examined the effectiveness of the Mokihana Program in the treatment of 123 elementary age children and 56 adolescents by comparing teacher ratings of behavior problems and adaptive skills at intake and at 1-year follow-up. It was hypothesized that symptom severity would decrease from pretreatment to follow-up. Findings showed statistically significant improvements across a wide spectrum of behavioral problems and adaptive functioning. The authors explore the challenges and opportunities in sustaining and replicating this type of departmental integration in the service of children and youth.