Tele-psychogeriatric Program

Telepsychiatry – through videoconferencing – explores the use of communication technology in mental health services and has been utilized mostly in rural underserved areas and on islands. Of special interest is the application of telepsychiatry to elderly care because elderly patients face great difficulties to gain access to mental health services. Furthermore they often suffer from multiple medical and psychiatric co-morbidities. Telepsychiatry in Greece through videoconference runs since 2004. The 1^st Department of Psychiatry, University of Athen developed a telepsychogeriatric project in collaboration with the Health Center of Andros Island, the Communities of Keratea, Byron and Heliopolis, founded by Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). It is expected that telepsychogeriatrics will be experiencing further growth in the near future, due to the greater needs of the geriatric population as well as the evolving of both technology and mental health providers. The main problem of the application of telepsychogeriatrics was that the elderly population is located in remote areas. To face this problem a mobile telepsychogeriatric unit was developed with the use of iPads as communication technology. There is an iPad application which contains all pre-existing tests that are useful for the doctor. It is used both by the doctor in order to fill in the patients’ responses and reactions as well as by the patient him- or herself in order to record any given task.

Greek

Greece

Link: http://www.telepsychogeriatrics.gr/?lang=en