Mental health teleconsultations represent 50% of the total telemedicine care carried out in the state of Durango.
The Durango Health Secretariat (SSD) has, since 2017, a telemedicine strategy which includes 26 hospitals connected to the State Telehealth Network (RET). Currently, the RET has medical units distributed in nine municipalities: 17 are Consulting Medical Units and 9 are Interconsulting Medical Units. The telehealth and telemedicine strategy aims to facilitate access to health services, especially at the first level of care.
In this sense, the SSD has begun to provide mental health services through the telemedicine modality. The strategy began in the municipality of Guanaceví, where the health authorities held workshops for staff training.
Mental health care by telemedicine is a novelty in Durango, since, given the increase in demand for this type of service during the pandemic, the SSD chose to add mental health to its catalog of care in this modality and generally deal with this problem.
“We are going to the municipalities, tomorrow (today, Wednesday) it is time to go to Pueblo Nuevo, the mental health brigades go to all the municipalities to attend to the entire society to attack and prevent this problem,” explained the secretary of health, Sergio González Rosemary.
In this sense, the secretary explained that the telemedicine mental health strategy promotes access to this type of service in remote municipalities. In addition, the SSD records that five out of every ten telemedicine consultations made are related to mental health issues.
