On Aug. 1, Cascade Community Healthcare will begin accepting new patients. Through the last year, the mental health care provider has been using a hybrid system, utilizing both telehealth and in-person appointments for patient care.
“We’re basically ‘back for business' so to speak. There are some caveats to that. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the delta variant and the low vaccine rate here,” said CEO Richard Stride. “But for the most part we’re planning on taking people back.”
There has been an influx of patients requesting mental health care due to circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Stride.
Young families especially, he said, have been seeking more care. Parents may have increased anxiety due to their children taking classes from home. In Lewis County, even for those who live in the city, Stride said internet connections were not reliable, calling that “another layer of stress and anxiety onto families” who rely on the internet for school or work.
The geriatric community has also been struck with increased anxiety and depression due to their isolation, Stride noted, and added that unfortunately, isolation is something that the population faces more than others, even without a pandemic. The current situation has simply exacerbated that issue.
As has been the case for every industry, shifting to a hybrid model for mental health care presents challenges. Patients taking appointments from home may not always be in a safe place to share openly because of possible threats to their safety or wellbeing at home.
Cascade also struggled to find a service that offered a level of confidentiality providers and patients felt comfortable about. There is a small chance, Stride said, that some online services used for casual conversation could be hacked into. And, whatever service Cascade used needed to be accessible for its patients, who range from age 5 to over 90.
Luckily, using a hybrid model did offer the chance to reach more patients who do not have transportation to the office, or simply don’t have the time or resources to leave the home for over an hour during business hours.
Stride repeatedly told The Chronicle that he had his staff to thank for pulling Cascade through a challenging year.
“The clients' wellbeing is always at the forefront of their minds,” he said.
