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The service
area of Texas Panhandle MHMR covers more than 20,000 (mostly rural) square miles. For some, getting to a psychiatrist
can be difficult. In the past, persons with mental illness might have had to travel several hours to Amarillo to access psychiatric
services.
However, innovative video-conferencing equipment now in place in our regional offices
links patients in rural communities to TPMHMR intake personnel and psychiatrists
located in Amarillo, in a service known as "telepsychiatry."
In addition, telepsychiatry equipment is now in place in in the Dallam-Hartley County Jail, Deaf Smith County Jail, Gray County Jail, Hutchinson County Jail, Potter County Detention Center and Randall County Jail, with expansion of the telepsychiatry program into the Hansford County Jail, Hemphill County Jail, and Moore County Jail coming soon. This allows for more access to treatment for inmates, while at the same time promoting a safer and more cost effective means of delivering this treatment:
"With telepsychiatry, you don't have to chain them up, put them in a van, devote the time of two officers…" -Tim Lacey, Medical Director - Randall County Jail
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