Telepsychiatry: Technology Progress, Challenges, and Language and Transcultural Issues

Abstract

Patients with psychiatric disorders or problems need specialists to correctly diagnose and treat their psychiatric issues. However, a lot of psychiatric patients, especially the patients living rural and remote communities, cannot get timely effective treatment or they lack appropriate care because they cannot access to quality mental health treatment. Telepsychiatry is an effective means of delivering quality psychiatric care and services. Telepsychiatry patients benefit from reduced travel, less lost work time, shorter waiting time for specialist referrals, and reduced costs. Telepsychiatry has gained high levels of satisfaction in all age groups, including the elderly. It is especially useful in rural areas where access to quality psychiatric care is limited or non-existent. Telepsychiatry often uses two-way, real time, interactive and video based services on the network to deliver psychiatric care. This paper introduces several telepsychiatry service delivery models, advantages and applications of telepsychiatry, and the technology such as videoconferencing and variables such as bandwidth used in telepsychiatry treatment sessions. Some technology progress such as mobile telepsychiatry, telepsychiatry based on cloud computing, and telepsychiatry information security based on cryptographic technology or biometrics is presented in this paper. Issues about cultures and languages in telepsychiatry, and limitations and challenges of telepsychiatry in technology and services, ethical and legal considerations of the telepsychiatry, syndromes and patients groups at significantly increased risk in telepsychiatry, patient-psychiatrist relationship in telepsychiatry, and future or further research in telepsychiatry are also discussed.