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Derry Township psychology practice to launch telepsychiatry service
Derry Township psychology practice to launch telepsychiatry service
A Dauphin County-based psychology practice plans to add an online segment to its services to reach more patients.
The Institute for Learning & Behavioral Sciences in Derry Township is set to begin offering psychiatry services through videoconferencing by December.
The institute will be offering the new service with the help through InSight Telepsychiatry, a New Jersey-based service provider that connects a practice’s patients with InSight’s own psychiatry providers.
Psychologists in Pennsylvania can have waiting times as long as six months due to the state’s significantly smaller number of providers compared to the national average.
The state average for providers in Pennsylvania is 179 providers per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 214 providers for every 100,000 people, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
With InSight, the practice will be able to offer both psychology and psychiatry services.
Dr. Clint Stankiewicz, the Institute for Learning & Behavioral Sciences’ owner and executive director, said that he has seen the lack of mental health care in the Hershey area first hand and is looking to ease the pressure with the partnership with InSight.
“As a mental health provider working in an outpatient setting, I saw an unmet need for psychiatry services in the Hershey area,” Stankiewicz said. “Implementing a telepsychiatry program will give more people access to psychiatric services and will allow individuals that I see to continue receiving services at this location.”
Through InSight’s videoconferencing, patients will have more access to psychiatry services but will be able to stay as patients through Stankiewicz. The partnership will also allow the institute to keep its current staffing size but increase its services.
The institute offers psychoeducational, learning, cognitive and psychological evaluations to both adult and pediatric patients.
Correction: The story previously stated that the Institute for Learning & Behavioral Sciences was a psychiatry practice.
