Background
In October 2015, guidelines were published for screening and treating depression and anxiety in people with cystic fibrosis and parent caregivers. To
support the implementation of those guidelines, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation awarded funding to programs that could show how they would sustain a mental health coordinator position and embed mental health into specialized CF care.
This is the first in a series of articles that highlights how care centers are working to sustain mental health as part of specialized CF care.
Approach
Emily Muther, PhD, a psychologist at the Mike McMorris Cystic Fibrosis Research and Care Center at Children's Hospital Colorado, and her team are developing a pilot program to help patients use telehealth for mental health services they otherwise may
not access if they had to attend clinic in person for those services.
The McMorris Center attracts people with CF throughout Colorado as far as 6 hours away. Although the team tries to provide psychological services during clinic visits and connect their patients and families with local providers, Muther seized on an idea
of tapping into Children's Hospital's telehealth department for assistance. For the program to work, the team needed to ensure that:
- Colleagues in the department understood that the process was not so different than in-person patient visits
- The technological solution was feasible
- The services were billable
- They could easily secure consent from their patients
- The most significant lesson learned for the team was realizing they had to invest the time in telehealth up front to get all the processes in place and address potential issues before launching the pilot program.
Next Steps
The team is looking to expand the telehealth service to more patients and integrate those services into the center's outreach CF clinics. To inform this next step, Muther is looking to detect:
- If patients are more likely to follow through when telehealth therapy is recommended, as many patients are reluctant to make appointments with community practitioners
- If patients are less likely to cancel or reschedule telehealth visits compared to in-person appointments
- If patients and families experience additional burdens or costs associated with telehealth
Although Muther is still gathering formal results, she is encouraged to see that her patients are scheduling subsequent telehealth appointments. “I am … excited about the opportunity to provide evidence-based psychological interventions to patients who
would not otherwise be able or willing to access such services.”
For questions please contact, mentalhealth@cff.org.