Innovation

Telehealth

The service area of Texas Panhandle Centers covers more than 21,000 (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 Texas Panhandle Centers intake personnel and psychiatrists located in Amarillo, in a service known as “telehealth.”
In addition, telehealth 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, Hansford County Jail, Hemphill County Jail, and Moore County Jail. 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: