Evaluation of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Pilot Project
The final version of the "Evaluation of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Pilot Project" dated December 21, 2002 was recently published. Keewaytinook Okimakanak now has a few bound copies of this document available but is making the publication available in a digital PDF format as well. The comprehensive evaluation was completed by the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at Queen’s University with the principal leads in the research being Christian Keresztes (PhD, CPsych) and Ralph Shaw (MA).
The Executive Summary describes the project ....
During the period from April, 2000, through March, 2001, the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations Tribal Council from Northern Ontario undertook a pilot project to provide telepsychiatry services to two of its six communities. The purpose of the pilot project and its evaluation was to assess the long-term viability of telepsychiatry as an ongoing program for First Nations communities. The evaluation undertook to assess the costs of providing the service to each of the primary stakeholders, as well as its effects on access to mental health care, the clinical process of care, health outcomes, and user satisfaction. ....
This report is divided into seven sections, a set of appendices and a bibliography of the relevant readings. Section 1 of this report has introduced the purpose of the pilot project and the broad framework and form of the evaluation.
With a brief description of Keewaytinook Okimakanak and the Nishnawbe-aski-Nation, and an overview of healthcare and mental services issues in the north, Section 2 provides context to the evaluation and will (we trust) assist the lay reader to interpret the findings, discussion, conclusions and recommendations, which follow. Section 3 undertakes to describe the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Project and the driving needs, rationale and goals which drew people to create the telepsychiatry network.
Section 4 broadly describes the two approaches used in the evaluation and specifies the questions asked to assess the pilot project.
Section 5 is a report of the cost- effectiveness analysis, describing how psychiatric service is currently being provided, how it is was provided through the telepsychiatric project, and how it might be provided through an on-going telepsychiatric programme. It addresses the impact of each on the overall healthcare resources available, including the size of their budget envelopes, expected transfers of economic burden, and relative fiscal sustainability.
Section 6 presents an analysis of the clinical service provided through the project, including an assessment of clinical outcomes resulting from the service and the clinical impact on the overall regime of mental health care of those clients who received a psychiatric consultation through the medium of video telecommunication.
Section 7 lays out the conclusions drawn from the analysis, and a set of recommendations drawn from the conclusions is presented in Section 8. Supporting documentation appears in a series of appendices to complete the report.