TORCH, TTUHSC partner to make mental healthcare more accessible in rural areas

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, also known as TORCH, is partnering with the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center to make mental healthcare more accessible and safer for both patients and providers.

Terry Scoggin, CEO at Titus Regional Medical Center, says Texas is facing a shortage of mental health resources, especially in rural areas.

“Titus Regional Medical Center has seen four hospitals close within 45 miles of us within the last 10 years,” Scoggin said. “We know the impact of a hospital closure on a rural community, it’s devastating.”

According to TTUHSC, nearly one in five adults live with a mental illness and rural hospital emergency rooms are the primary place mental health patients are taken to.

“We also know the impact of behavioral health on rural communities,” Scoggin said. “It’s one of our largest issues that we are dealing with over the last 10 years is the increase of behavioral health patients coming to our emergency department and being boarded into our emergency department.”

A telepsychiatry initiative introduced by TORCH and TTUHSC allows psychiatrists and other behavioral health providers to deliver psychiatric care online, typically to patients with mental health conditions.

Kathy Griffis, chief nursing officer at Titus Regional Medical Center, believes this type of care can be very effective.

“Patients don’t need to go to an impatient center if they don’t need to and you need an expert to decide that to keep them safe,” Griffis said. “So that is the biggest thing, 50% of our patients with the TORCH program don’t end up within patient care. They are able to go back home and be treated outpatient, which is a gamechanger.”

Griffis says patients who experience acute psychotic events would at times be uncontrollable and would become violent without knowing.

Griffis believes the telepsychiatry initiative can help keep staff safer and provide quicker medical help for the patients.

“For the staff, they are seeing patients get the treatment they needed, the psychosis has stopped earlier because they are getting the medication they need to stop it,” Griffis said. “Then on the back side of that, the success stories are beautiful, when they are able to transition home and go outpatient and they get better that is a gamechanger for staff, that is really why they are here.”

Scoggin encourages all leaders within health care to look into behavioral health and how to better serve patients.

“Behavioral health is an issue, it’s an epidemic in rural areas across Texas and the United States,” Scoggins said. “This program has made a huge difference not only addressing the behavioral needs in our community but also workplace violence and the stress of our employees, team members, our doctors and everyone involved.”

Currently, TTUHSC is working with about 15 to 20 hospitals and are hoping to increase that number in the coming years.

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