Development and Dissemination of a Telemental Health Startup Toolkit

Telemental health (TMH) is largely underutilized by psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNP) despite substantial literature supporting its use. This project sought to improve current and future PMHNP understanding of, and accessibility to, the components needed to provide TMH services in Utah. The principle investigator developed a TMH startup toolkit and disseminated it to participants during a 20-minute training on the toolkit. The delivery of the training was a hybrid format (in-person and via YouTube livestream) to improve attendance. Participants (n=14) completed questionnaires prior to the training, directly after, and at 1-month after the training to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Questionnaires utilized a 1-5 Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree) to quantify responses. Participants reported improved understanding of the necessary components to using TMH in Utah from pre (2.14 ± 0.64) to post (4.57 ± 0.5; p=0.001) questionnaire, improved level of comfort in using TMH from pre (2 ± 1) to post (4 ± 0.76; p=0.02) questionnaire, and no significant difference on the benefits to using TMH from pre (4.43 ± 0.73) to post (5 ± 0) questionnaire. At 1-month follow-up, participants retained a general knowledge of the necessary components to using TMH, attitudes remained positive about potential benefits, and most participants continued to feel comfortable using TMH. However, few participants began using TMH to deliver care after the training. Dissemination of a TMH startup toolkit improves current and future PMHNP understanding of, and perspectives about, using TMH to deliver care in Utah. Future projects and trainings are implicated to further the utilization of TMH by PMHNP. Keywords: telemental health, startup toolkit, psychiatric nurse practitioner, Utah,