Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare > Volume 14, Number 5 > Pp. 227-230

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RESEARCH Original articles

Effect of a behavioural health and specialty care telemedicine programme on goal attainment for youths in juvenile detention

Karen C Fox ^*  , Pamela Connor , Elizabeth McCullers ^* and Teresa Waters 

^* Delta Health Alliance, Stoneville, Mississippi; University of Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Medicine, Jackson, Mississippi; University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Correspondence: Karen C Fox, Delta Health Alliance, 435 Stoneville Road, PO Box 277, Stoneville, Mississippi 38776, USA (Fax: +1 662 686 3522; Email: kfox{at}deltahealthalliance.org)

We conducted a pre-post study of the effect of a telepsychiatry counselling service on youths housed in three juvenile detention facilities. In the first year of the telemedicine programme, 321 psychiatry consultations were conducted via telemedicine; in the second year of the programme, 573 psychiatry consultations were conducted. Records for 190 students were then examined by two raters. The total number of behavioural goals for each adolescent increased from 8.2 in the pre-telemedicine year to 8.7 in the first year of telemedicine and then to 10.0 in the second year (P < 0.05). In Year 2 of the study, subjects also had a significantly higher number of goals in four of the five categories: education, family, health and social skills (P < 0.05). Although other changes at the youth detention facilities or in the juvenile justice system may have been partly responsible for the effects observed, the study suggests that telemedicine may be useful for improving the rate of attainment of goals associated with family relations and personality/behaviour.

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