State Uses IT to Aid Mental Health

New York has awarded $8.7 million for a project that will leverage information technology to improve mental health care in the state's Hudson Valley.

The funds will benefit the Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC), a not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve health care in the region through "health information technology adoption and secure health information exchange," among other strategies.

The group's Mental Health Care Coordination Project will use electronic medical records to better manage cases involving 8,400 patients suffering from depression and other affective disorders, 120 primary care providers, 36 psychiatrists and 174 psychologists, the group announced on Thursday.

"The project is really about working with providers with high-need patients to discover ways to better coordinate care," said Susan Stuard, THINC's executive director. It "will also give patients access to their health information and educating materials about their health needs through a patient portal."

Mental health services were largely excluded from the HITECH Act, the landmark legislation that provides billions of dollars for the replacement of paper medical files with electronic medical records. In April, Reps. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced a bill to close the law's coverage gap. The 2010 Health Information Technology Extension for Behavioral Health Services Act, according to Kennedy's office, would ensure "eligibility of many behavioral and mental health professionals, psychiatric hospitals, behavioral and mental health treatment facilities, and substance abuse treatment facilities."