Center for Telehealth and E-Health Law
April 13, 2009

A new report, “Grading the States 2009,” from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) highlights the severe lack of access in many states to mental health services. Due in large part to drastic budget cuts, most U.S. states are not providing their residents with adequate mental health care, resulting in a nationwide average score of a “D.” In a recent statement the NAMI said “Mental health care in America is in crisis.”

However, one state that has traditionally suffered from lack of access to mental health services made significant progress in the 2009 report—Oklahoma. Having received a “D” on the previous NAMI report, Oklahoma was given the grade of a “B” after the most recent evaluation, placing its program among the top six in the nation. Officials in Oklahoma credit a new telepsychiatry program for much of the state’s progress. Connecting rural patients throughout the state to mental health professionals in larger communities via videoconference, the program has been able to dramatically increase access to consultations for the approximately 250,000 people in Oklahoma who are in need of mental health services. “This enables the mental health professionals to treat people far away without the cost and time constraints of driving long distances,” explained Dr. Stan Ardoin, a psychiatrist. “It makes the services more immediate, more available.”

Debbie Moran, who directs a state mental health facility in the town of McAlester, also praised those involved in the program. “Our doctors can be available every day, instead of just one day a week, to be able to assess people in crisis or emergency situations or even if you just need to make a medication change,” she said. Moran and others hope to see continued progress in Oklahoma—which will partially depend on increased funding from the state legislature. As NAMI Oklahoma Executive Director Karina Forrest said, “At this point we really need some dollars to put this in place.”

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