Digital teleconferencing brings help closer

By Zeke Campfield
Staff Writer / Lawton Constitution

FORT COBB — A crippling work accident 10 years ago initiated a downward spiral of mental health problems, but treatment for Jose Valle is now always just 15 minutes away.

The Carnegie resident said he lost his wife and kids due to his physical disability, and over the subsequent years developed a severe depression that manifests itself in several ways — anxiety, panic attacks, and forced isolation.

Psychological or psychiatric treatment was a hassle until he discovered the Variety Care clinic in Fort Cobb even then appointments were hard to come by.

“I didn’t look for help right away. I just cried a whole lot,” said Valle, who remains on disability and walks now with a cane. “I was so close to the kids — I used to carry them sometimes, all three of them, so, yes, this was very hard for me to deal with.”

Developers of a new digital teleconferencing system at the non-profit health care group said they are working to increase access to behavioral care for patients like Valle at its rural clinics in Southwest Oklahoma.

Patients in and around Fort Cobb, Tipton and Grandfield who are seeking one-time or regular counseling sessions with licensed therapists and psychiatrists can do so now without the burden of traveling to an urban area, said Tres Savage, spokesman for Variety Care.

The service itself isn’t new to the rural clinics, which mostly treat indigent patients, Savage said, but, instead of rotating Oklahoma City providers through the rural clinics on a week-by-week basis, access to a provider is now available more regularly and more immediately.

“It’s about better access to these important services — behavioral health, depression, trauma, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse. Those are so tied in to the whole medical picture of a person or a family,” Savage said.

For Valle, a video meeting with one of the Variety Care counselors provides a dependable and secure outlet for his frustrations. With Medicare benefits each session costs him only $15, and Valle said it’s easier to open up and look his counselor in the eye because she’s not someone he might run into at the local supermarket.

“That’s one of my fears, but it’s a stranger — I know nobody will see her,” he said. “And it does help. Whenever she sees me she gives me suggestions and I found out at times there’s just simple things I need to do. I just need to bring it out and get some suggestions and she puts me on track.”

David Howlett, director of behavioral health and special projects for Variety Care, said as many as 75 patients have sought treatment through the video conferencing system at the three rural clinics this year. A heavy percentage of the indigent patients who seek treatment at the rural clinics have underlying psychological issues that contribute to their health problems, he said.

“There’s no shortage of mental health needs, and it’s becoming quite apparent that as we get into this technology we’re still having trouble meeting all the needs,” he said.

Howlett said he set up a similar network for a mental health center previously. The equipment is of the type you might find in any other company that uses video conferencing for meetings and the like, but the network piggybacks the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse network and is specially encrypted so as to protect users’ privacy.

“It’s not as easy as Skype — it’s way more secure than that,” he said. “We’ve still got a ways to go, but it’s a start and we’ve made good progress over the last year.”

Keeping the organization’s three counselors and psychiatrist in Oklahoma City allows the group to see more patients in a day’s time and saves money that can be invested in improving other services offered by Variety Care, Savage said.

The program is the first community health program of this kind to be certified through Oklahoma Health Care Authority, he said.

“We’re increasing access by being able to do some of it this way,” he said. “Every time you have a physician on the road for an hour and a half to go see patients that’s an hour and a half they’re not seeing patients.”

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